God's Favor... Even in Times of Trouble

I am preaching a series on Walking in God's Favor right now at my church (you can find those messages by clicking here) and while the response has been overwhelmingly positive, there have been some critics. I received a message today via our website from someone who called me a false prophet because (as they said) I was denying that "God's people are called to suffer." I'll beg to differ that we are "called" to suffer because that would seem to indicate that suffering is all we would do. However, we will and do suffer for his Name's sake. If this person paid any attention to what I preached in week 3 of this series, the entire message was about Joseph's suffering at the hands of his brothers, being sold as a slave, falsely accused and imprisoned; but through it all, the Word stresses that God was with Joseph and his favor was upon him. The point is, we (followers of Christ) can and will suffer, but in the midst of our suffering, God is there and he is making a way for us. But nowhere in the Bible do I read that all we are supposed to do is suffer and walk around looking like a sadsack.  God's blessing and favor follow us where ever we go!