What do you think a person’s life looks like when God is clearly with him or her? What are some signs of a favored life? Let me suggest a few things:
We get the job when we apply for it.
Our marriage gets better and better as we fall more in love each day.
Our children honor God with their lives and never turn their backs on Him.
We are in unshakably good shape financially.
You get the idea. Surely if God is with us, life should work out well. But our Old Testament friend Joseph has a different story to tell.
We first meet Joseph in Genesis 37 when he’s just seventeen years old—and his ten older brothers hate him with a passion. Joseph was his dad’s favorite (Jacob didn’t even try to hide that fact), and Joseph was spoiled (oblivious to what an obnoxious little brother he was). So when the ten saw a chance to get rid of the pest, they took it. The brothers threw Joseph into an empty well to let him die, but they ended up selling him to slave traders heading for Egypt. When the traders sold Joseph to Potiphar, a captain of Pharaoh’s guard, we see this phrase for the first time: “The LORD was with Joseph” (39:2). Really? Being sold into slavery wasn’t a sign that God had left him?
Next the wife of his boss tried to seduce Joseph. When he resisted her advances, she accused him of rape, and Joseph was thrown into prison. Again we see the phrase, “The LORD was with Joseph” (39:21). If the Lord really were with Joseph, wouldn’t you expect Him to defend Joseph when he did the right thing by rejecting Potiphar’s wife?
Well, Joseph did well in jail and was put in charge of the other prisoners. After several years, he was given the opportunity to interpret dreams for two of Pharaoh’s former servants who had also been thrown into prison. When one of the servants was about to be released, Joseph had a simple enough request: “When you get out of here, will you please mention to Pharaoh that I didn’t do what I was imprisoned for?” (my paraphrase). Not a tough assignment, but the man forgot, so Joseph spent two more years in prison.
Long story short, when Joseph was finally released and found himself face-to-face with the brothers who had betrayed him, he made this remarkable statement: “You intended to harm me, but God intended it all for good” (50:20).
May we—like Joseph—trust that God does that same thing today. No matter what is happening in our lives, our sovereign Redeemer is at work for our good.
The Lord is always with you and always at work for your good.
Five Minutes in the Word 
The keeper of the prison paid no attention to anything that was in Joseph’s charge, because the LORD was with him. And whatever he did, the LORD made it succeed.
Genesis 39:23 ESV
As I was with Moses, so I will be with you; I will never leave you nor forsake you.
Joshua 1:5 NIV
Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have, because God has said, “Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you.”
Hebrews 13:5 NIV
“Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”
Matthew 28:19–20 ESV
I will see Your face in righteousness; when I awake, I will be satisfied with Your presence.
Psalm 17:15 HCSB