Have you ever done the right thing and still ended up in the wrong place?
You told the truth, but they blamed you. You worked hard, but someone else got the credit. You tried to honor the Lord, but your circumstances got worse, not better.
It’s frustrating when doing the right thing doesn’t seem to produce the right results. We tend to assume that if we’re faithful, things should eventually work out in our favor.
But what happens when faithfulness leads you somewhere you never expected?
That’s where we find Joseph.
Joseph had already experienced more than his share of trouble. His brothers had sold him into slavery. He had been taken to Egypt. He worked hard and earned the trust of Potiphar, an Egyptian official. But when Joseph refused to participate in his master’s wife’s attempt to seduce him, she falsely accused him of wrongdoing. And he went to prison for it.
Let’s catch up to his story in Genesis 39:20b–23.
20b But while Joseph was there in the prison, 21 the Lord was with him; he showed him kindness and granted him favor in the eyes of the prison warden. 22 So the warden put Joseph in charge of all those held in the prison, and he was made responsible for all that was done there. 23 The warden paid no attention to anything under Joseph’s care, because the Lord was with Joseph and gave him success in whatever he did.
Genesis 39:20b-23, New International Version
There’s that phrase again: “the Lord was with him.”
Earlier in the chapter, we read that the Lord was with Joseph while he served in Potiphar’s house. Now Joseph is behind bars, and the same truth remains. His circumstances have changed dramatically, but the Lord’s presence has not.
Joseph didn’t suddenly become a different person just because he was in prison. Joseph had been faithful to the Lord, and that hadn’t changed. And the Lord was with Joseph, even in prison.
Notice what the passage doesn’t say. It doesn’t say Joseph was released immediately. It doesn’t say the injustice was corrected overnight. It doesn’t even tell us that Joseph understood why any of this was happening.
Joseph was still in prison. And the Lord was still with him.
We want the Lord’s presence to mean the immediate removal of our problems. We want Him to open the door, change the circumstances, vindicate our reputation, and get us back on the road we thought we were supposed to be traveling.
Sometimes He does. But sometimes the Lord shows His presence by sustaining us right where we are, even in a prison someone else built.
Joseph’s story reminds us that our circumstances do not determine whether we can be faithful to the Lord. Faithfulness isn’t reserved for seasons when life is going well. It’s for bad times, too.
Maybe your prison doesn’t have bars. Maybe it’s a job you can’t afford to leave, a difficult relationship you can’t escape, an endless season of waiting, or a disappointment you’re still trying to understand. You may feel stuck somewhere you never intended to be. You might even be there because of someone else’s decisions.
You might not be able to change your circumstances today. But you can still choose how you live in them.
The goal isn’t to pretend that painful circumstances don’t hurt. It isn’t to call injustice good or to stop praying for God to change things. It’s to refuse to let difficult circumstances dictate the character we display.
Faithfulness doesn’t depend on where we are; it’s shown in how we live where the Lord has placed us.
You may be in a season you never chose. Keep praying. Keep trusting. Keep honoring the Lord.
Like Joseph, you can live faithfully for the Lord even in crummy circumstances.
Instead of focusing all your energy on where you wish you were, ask the Lord to show you what faithfulness looks like where you are right now. You can pray for a way out without wasting the opportunity to honor our Lord where you are.
Ask yourself: What is one thing I can do today to honor the Lord in the circumstances I’m currently facing?
Then do it.
You may not be able to choose your prison, but you can choose to remain faithful in it.
