Have you ever had a season when everything just seemed to click?
The bills are paid. Work is going well. Your relationships are healthy. The kids are doing okay. Your plans are working out. You finally feel like you can breathe a little.
And if we’re honest, those are the seasons when it’s easiest to say, “God is good!” But here’s an important question: What if God’s presence isn’t measured by how good your circumstances are?
Let’s read Genesis 39:1-6.
1 Now Joseph had been taken down to Egypt. Potiphar, an Egyptian who was one of Pharaoh’s officials, the captain of the guard, bought him from the Ishmaelites who had taken him there.
Genesis 39:1-6a, New International Version
2 The Lord was with Joseph so that he prospered, and he lived in the house of his Egyptian master. 3 When his master saw that the Lord was with him and that the Lord gave him success in everything he did, 4 Joseph found favor in his eyes and became his attendant. Potiphar put him in charge of his household, and he entrusted to his care everything he owned. 5 From the time he put him in charge of his household and of all that he owned, the Lord blessed the household of the Egyptian because of Joseph. The blessing of the Lord was on everything Potiphar had, both in the house and in the field. 6 So Potiphar left everything he had in Joseph’s care; with Joseph in charge, he did not concern himself with anything except the food he ate.
Joseph would have had every reason to think the Lord had abandoned him. His brothers betrayed him, threw him into a pit, sold him to traveling merchants, and carried him hundreds of miles to Egypt. Now he was a slave in the household of a powerful Egyptian official named Potiphar.
Nothing about Joseph’s circumstances looked good.
And yet Genesis 39:2 says: “The Lord was with Joseph so that he prospered.”
That’s a remarkable statement. Joseph was a slave, but the Lord was with him. Joseph was far from home, but the Lord was with him. Joseph had lost control of his circumstances, but the Lord was with him. Everything about his life right now was pretty rotten, but the Lord was with him.
And because the Lord was with Joseph, Potiphar eventually noticed something different about him. Joseph was trustworthy, competent, and faithful. Potiphar eventually put Joseph in charge of his entire household.
Joseph’s circumstances had changed dramatically, but the Lord’s presence had not.
We desperately need to remember that.
We tend to look at good circumstances as evidence that our Lord is with us. But His presence doesn’t depend on our circumstances.
The Lord is with you when everything is going right. The Lord is with you when nothing is going right.
Sometimes the greatest evidence of the Lord’s presence isn’t that He changes your circumstances. It’s that He changes YOU in the middle of them.
Joseph didn’t get to choose where he lived. He didn’t get to choose his job. He didn’t get to choose his circumstances. He didn’t choose anything about this situation.
But he could choose how he lived within them.
That’s the challenge for us.
Don’t wait for everything to be perfect before you recognize the Lord’s presence. Don’t assume He is closer when life is easier and farther away when life gets difficult.
The Lord’s presence matters more than our circumstances.
Maybe today you’re in a really good season. Things are falling into place. You’re experiencing success and peace. Enjoy it. Thank God for it. But don’t let the good circumstances become more important than the One who gave them.
And if you’re in a difficult season, remember this: your circumstances may have changed, but He has not. He is still with you.
Do This Right Now: Stop for two minutes and thank the Lord. Not for what He has done, but simply for who He is and the fact that He is with you.
Then ask yourself. “If His presence is more important than my circumstances, how should I live differently today?”
You may not be able to change your circumstances today.
But you can choose to recognize God’s presence in them.
And that can change everything.
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