Now I want you to know, brothers and sisters, that my circumstances have turned out for the greater progress of the gospel, so that my imprisonment in the cause of Christ has become well known throughout the praetorian guard and to everyone else, and that most of the brothers and sisters, trusting in the Lord because of my imprisonment, have far more courage to speak the word of God without fear.
When we are exasperated and overwhelmed with life’s problems, we might ask things like, “Why God?” or “What’s the point?” In many of the challenges we face in life, we have limited control. At face value, nothing good can come from the strife in our family or the illness we are fighting. For Paul, it could’ve been the prison sentence He was facing.
But God’s plan is better and richer than what we often see on the surface. In our struggles He isn’t just seeking a quick fix like we are, He is molding our hearts to look like His and developing a testimony we can share with others. We don’t always know the good that can come from our difficult days, but we can trust the same God who used Paul’s imprisonment for good. He will be faithful in our story as well. Paul allowed this difficult time to grow Him closer to God instead of growing resentment towards God.
Life with Christ isn’t the absence of hard times, it is God’s presence with us through hard times. He is working to make even the most broken places of our lives beautiful in Him. “The point” of our struggles then isn’t just to get through it, to find meaning, or even learn something, though these might all happen in ways. God wants us to walk with Him through our struggles as Paul did, trust Him even when the future is scary, and allow Him to develop and grow our hearts toward Him in the process.
- When have you asked God “Why?” or “What’s the point?” during a tough time? What happened?
- How have you grown spiritually through a difficult season you faced?
- Pray for someone you know who is struggling. Ask God to help that person grow in his or her trust in and dependence on Him.
