One of the ways the Lord develops our faith—and you’re not going to like this—is through pain. If your boss makes you the vice president of the company, your response will likely be, "Thank You, Lord. I just want You to know I love You and I trust You." But would your response be the same if instead, your boss says, "We don't need you. You're laid off?" That's when your faith is really tested. Do you actually believe God, despite your circumstances, or do you only trust God when life is good?

Joseph loved God intensely, but he needed to go through some development. His faith in God was in its beginning stages, like a seed that needed to get deeper to grow—and that growth came through pain.

If I had an experience like Joseph's, I wonder if my response would be something like: "This is the Devil; he’s trying to ruin my life!" Or maybe, "How could God allow this to happen?"

When Joseph was taken down to Egypt, a man named Potiphar bought him as a slave. But "The Lord was with Joseph, and he was a successful man" (Genesis 39:2). He did his job with all his heart, with joy rather than complaint, and eventually Potiphar made him overseer of his house (see vv. 3-4).

Wherever you find yourself, you could chafe against it, or you could focus on God's sovereignty. Then, when you look at the test, say, "I am going to take this as the will of God and I'm going to do my best."

Whatever Joseph did, the Lord blessed it. Joseph gave a faithful testimony to the glory of God in spite of his circumstances. When you live like that, you can expect to raise the interest and the ire of your adversary—the Devil. The enemy of your soul and his demons have studied you—they know your strengths and weaknesses, when you're vulnerable, and they know how to trip you up. You must be ready for that.

There is a Scripture in the temptation of Jesus which says, "Now when the devil had ended every temptation, he departed from Him until an opportune time" (Luke 4:13). It's a haunting verse. You might think, "Man, I did really good. I withstood the attack of the enemy." But he's just waiting for the right time, the opportune time.

For Joseph, that time came when Potiphar’s wife tried to seduce him, and he said, "No." So she accused him of trying to rape her, and he was thrown into prison. "But the Lord was with Joseph" (v. 21). Even in prison.

Do you realize there are people in your life who are counting on you to not succumb to temptation? They've put their trust in you: Your spouse, your children, your family, your friends, and the body of Christ are trusting you to be ethical, to show your devotion to God.

"The fear of the Lord is to hate evil" (Proverbs 8:13). That means an awesome reverence for God—an awareness that God is here, God is watching. You and I live in a filthy world that seeks to pour all its pollution into us. Learn to close the gates and say, "I don't want to see that, don't want to hear that, don't want to go there."

Let me encourage you to do two things, summed up by one word: Run. Run from sin, run to the Savior. Run from anything that drags you away from God. Run to the Savior.