Meditation Thought: “Now I want you to know, brothers and sisters, that what has happened to me has actually served to advance the gospel. As a result, it has become clear throughout the whole palace guard and to everyone else that I am in chains for Christ. And because of my chains, most of the brothers and sisters have become confident in the Lord and dare all the more to proclaim the gospel without fear. (Philippians 1:12-14)
“What has happened has served to advance the gospel” – if ever God worked in a seemingly undesirable situation to bring much good, it was Paul’s imprisonment – a pattern first revealed by Christ’s crucifixion and resurrection: the apparent victory of those who would destroy the Truth of God revealed – and then the blossoming of God’s revelation from the seed of distress.
It almost seems that the very darkness and distress were the nurturing places for the strength and light of God to burst forth in newness of health and visibility and the generation of HIs power as never before. Surely the Holy Spirit working in Jesus and in Paul was the start of the bursting forth of new growth – but the faith of Jesus and Paul – and the faithfulness of their faith nurtured the growth and expanded it once it was started.
So, we too, can allow the Spirit to plant the Truth – to plant God’s love and God’s character in our hearts and so, we too, in faith, can nurture it and cause it to grow ’til it bursts forth wherever we are in what is a prison for us.
Let Your light glow, O Lord,
Within my mind and soul,
So brightly, penetrating, invigorating
That my “prison”
Is transformed
To cozy home
For You and me –
A place where hope, and love and joy
Are evident –
And thus shock
Those who observe
The transformed place
Into awareness
Of Your power, your love, your call and your presence.
Meditations of Marie's Heart 