To Encourage You

Philemon 1 “Paul, a prisoner for Christ Jesus.”

The words above were written by Paul from a Roman prison.  Yet, he didn’t see himself as a prisoner of Rome so much as “a prisoner for Christ Jesus.”  He was a prisoner for Christ Jesus in the sense that he was in this situation because of his ministry of the gospel.  That’s why he was locked up. However, in another sense, Paul was so confident of his relationship with Christ and God’s presence in his life that in each and every situation he faced he recognized God’s sovereign hand.  Paul knew he was in prison not just because the Romans had put him there, but because God had allowed the Romans to put him there.  What the Romans meant for evil, God meant for good. What seemed like a meaningless, hopeless, even dire situation to anyone looking on from the outside Paul viewed with joy, as he knew God was with him and in total and complete control. 

Job was like this, despite all the perplexity of his great suffering.  In the face of such discouragement Job could say, “Though he slay me, I will hope in him” (Job 13:15).  Joseph was another one who viewed his circumstances in this way.  Although his own brothers had sold him into slavery, when given the opportunity for revenge, Joseph said this to them: “Do not fear, for am I in the place of God? As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good, to bring it about that many people should be kept alive, as they are today” (Genesis 50:19-10).  And that’s always the way it is for the believer.  God has clearly told us that in every circumstance, in every situation, at every moment, He is very near us.  Nothing comes into a believer’s life that hasn’t first passed by our Good Shepherd, who is with us even in the valley of the shadow of death.  If we are in a difficult situation, even if brought on us by some evil intent of another person, there is a reason for it that God has ordained. 

Sickness is like this.  No one likes to be ill.  Yet, the Psalmist could say, as he looked back “It is good for me that I was afflicted, that I might learn your statutes” (Psalm 119:71).  God had a plan for this hardship.  He always does.  In every situation and in every relationship, as believers, we are told to look for God’s hand at work, and even when we can’t see it, to trust that it’s there.  This applies also in the workplace.  In the mundane everyday work that we do day in and day out, we are to recognize that we are not just serving our boss.  Rather, “(We) are serving the Lord Christ” (Colossians 3:24)  It’s because of this that we are told right before this in Colossians 3 that in “Whatever (we) do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men, knowing that from the Lord (we) will receive the inheritance as (our) reward.”   

So, if you are a believer, is that how you see your life?  And if you are an unbeliever, these things are true as well, for God is constantly at work to move the unbeliever to a position of seeing his or her desperate need for salvation.  God is at work in our lives – every one of us – whether we recognize it or not.  And this is a truly wonderful thing, made ever more wonderful as we understand and embrace God’s glorious truth.