Have you ever felt discouraged as a Christian? Have you ever felt that your life has been a failure? Does your stomach ever feel tied in knots as you think about an uncertain future?
Well, take heart! You’re not the first child of God to feel this way. In fact, it may surprise you to know that none other than the great apostle Paul seemed to be struggling with these very same problems. Paul found himself stuck in a Roman prison because of his faithfulness to preach the Gospel.
But in spite of his unjust arrest and imprisonment, something wonderful happened for Paul. One night, Jesus Himself came to pay him a visit. Here’s how Luke describes the scene in the Book of Acts:
But the following night the Lord stood by him and said, “Be courageous, Paul; for as you have testified for Me in Jerusalem, so you must also bear witness at Rome.”–Acts 23:11, NKJV
God had not, nor would He, abandon Paul. And He won’t abandon you, either. Even though the local Christians couldn’t (or wouldn’t) help him in his distressing circumstance, the Lord had come to visit him. Later, in his last epistle, Paul wrote, “Everyone abandoned me” (2 Timothy 4:16, NLT). Have you ever felt that way? Abandoned, forgotten, forsaken? Know this: God has not abandoned you! The Lord is with you. And He can compensate, by His own loving presence, for every earthly loss.
C. H. Spurgeon said, “If all else forsook him, Jesus was company enough. If all others despised him, the smile of Jesus was approval enough. If the good cause seemed to be in danger, in the presence of his Master victory was sure. The Lord who has stood for him at the cross now stood for him in the prison. It was a dungeon, but the Lord was there; it was dark, but the glory of the Lord lit it up with Heaven’s own splendor. Better to be in a jail with the Lord than to be anywhere else without Him.”
No matter what you are going through right now, know this: You are not alone. God is there with you, wanting to bring encouragement to you.
And here’s another huge infusion of comfort from Acts 23:11. The Lord revealed to the great apostle that He knew exactly what was going on in his life – right down to the details. Jesus called Paul by name, knew where Paul was, knew where Paul was headed, and knew that His faithful servant was feeling more than a little anxiety about it all. Just because Paul was in a prison didn’t mean that God had lost track of him.
There is a story of a minister who came to see John Bunyan, the minister who wrote the great classic “Pilgrim’s Progress” from a prison cell. He told Bunyan, “Friend, the Lord sent me to you, and I have been seeking for you in half the prisons in England.”
“No, that cannot be,” Bunyan. “For if the Lord had sent you to me, you would have come here at once, for He knows I have been here for years.” Jesus is there with us in our “prisons,” as well. For some people, it is a literal jail cell, because they’ve broken the law and have to serve their time. Yet, as they have sought the Lord and asked for His forgiveness, Jesus is with them there in that prison cell.
Maybe you are in a different kind of prison right now – the prison of a hospital bed. You’d love to get up and just walk out, but you can’t. Yet Jesus is there in that hospital room, convalescent home or room of your home, saying, “Be courageous. You are not alone, and I am fully aware of your suffering.”
Or it might be a prison cell of mourning, because of the loss of a loved one through death. (I know about that now personally.) Whatever or wherever your prison is, Jesus is there with you now.
And Jesus also knows what lies ahead for you. That is why He came to Paul in this hour of need, because He knew he would need this additional perspective. As a prisoner of Rome, Paul wasn’t privy to what was going on all around him at this point. He didn’t know that there was effectively a contract out on his life, which was comprised of 40 men who had taken an oath not to eat or drink until they had killed him!
Yes, sometimes, ignorance can be bliss. Many times, it’s really a good thing that we don’t know all that is swirling around us in both the supernatural and natural realms. The truth is, God reveals to us as much as we need to know, when we need to know it.
He won’t tell you more then you need to know, and He certainly won’t give you less then you need, but just enough.
The military has a term it uses for sensitive information. If it is necessary for you to be aware of something, it’s on a “need-to-know basis.” For instance, a subordinate may ask his commanding officer about certain details on a certain mission, to which the CO might respond, “Soldier, that’s on a need-to-know basis, and you don’t need to know!”
In the same way, God gives us what we “need to know” when we need to know it.
Here’s a final quote from Spurgeon that should bring hope to any Christian facing a trial:
“The Lord knows all about your troubles before they come to you; He anticipates them by His tender foresight. Before Satan can draw the bow, the preserver of men will put His beloved beyond the reach of the arrow. Before the weapon is forged in the furnace, and prepared on the anvil, He knows how to provide us with armor of proof which shall blunt the edge of the sword and break the point of the spear.”
No matter what the enemy of your soul may tell you, no matter what your own heart might tell you, you are not alone, and you are never, ever hidden from the watchful, loving eye of your Lord and Savior.
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Wayne Allyn Root