10 • 12 • 21

When Prison is Part of the Plan

I have a friend. She’s someone I have learned a great deal from. We have enjoyed wonderful conversations about the Lord. We’ve read books and discussed them. We’ve strengthened each other, prayed for each other. We’ve been the voice of truth to each other in times of confusion. And, over the past several years, I’ve watched her walk through a long season of darkness and pain. My heart aches for my friend. Frankly, my heart aches period.

Christ-followers often talk about the importance of walking in faith; trusting God in darkness when we face trials and troubles of our own. Trials have not been uncommon in my life. Some of them threatened to suffocate me. And somehow God rescued me from every single one!

The LORD is near to the brokenhearted and saves the crushed in spirit. Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the LORD delivers him out of them all.
Psalm 34:18-19

But as I walk alongside her, I realize another aspect of my Christian faith is very important – the importance of guarding my heart and trusting God when I see those I love suffer in ways I don’t understand.

The purpose of my blog today is meant for those who are in a prison of some sort which God, in His sovereignty, has allowed. But I am also throwing in a charge for those of us called to walk beside them in their darkness. Here it is:

This is a divine appointment. Your words are not meant to be just your opinion. The only words that matter are the truth.
Don’t let your emotions get the best of you.
Don’t let your sympathy for your loved one’s struggle turn your heart FROM God. Let it turn you to Him.
Pray for your friend or loved one like it’s your job. (I say that a lot, but it’s crucial.)
Realize you have a place in the story if God has brought you together.
When they cannot see, you must guide them by the hand to the Light.
- When they cannot hope,
- When they cannot pray,
- When they cannot understand,
- God has given you the honor to stand in the gap.
Pity and questioning God for the suffering of your friend only sabotage the process.
He has provisions. He will supply their every need and yours but you must decide to believe.
Finally, as a friend once said, stop asking God why and start asking what. “God, what can I do to be Jesus to my friend in this dark season of the soul?”

Okay, now to the topic I want to address today. The truth is that even though you love God and walk with Him, prison is sometimes part of the plan.

What in the world do I mean? Should we all go to prison? No. I’m talking about emotional and circumstantial prison bars. A confinement perhaps we don’t see coming or that has lingered on for far too long.

Are there bars over your heart or life in some way?

Have you grown hopeless that might ever get out of the prison of this particular set of circumstances?

Maybe the WHOLE of your life feels like a prison.

I want to clarify here. Some have knowingly erected prison walls of sin in their lives. That is a different matter for another blog post. Today I am writing to the Believer who is seemingly doing everything you can to walk with, obey and seek the Lord, but you find yourself in a prison cell you don’t understand? I hope to encourage you with the following words.

I just finished reading the story about Joseph in the book of Genesis. (Genesis 37-50). I know the story well, and the many times I read it, I always thought of Joseph as someone who took lemons and made lemonade. Let’s just say he made ALOT of lemonade in his life. He rose to the top in every difficult situation he faced. He was a man of integrity who continually sought the Lord and walked with Him. In the past, I focused on Joseph’s successes. But this time, as I read through, I saw the humanity and the heavy emotions that Joseph (who seemed to conquer every obstacle without breaking a sweat) actually carried.

I took note of the times he wept. I tried to imagine what it must be like to live a life being blatantly mistreated, falsely accused, and forgotten. I underlined verses that indicated how devastating this journey must have often felt to him.

Take this verse, for instance. Joseph’s jealous brothers said, many years after they betrayed Joseph, “We saw how distressed he was when he pleaded with us for his life, but we would not listen.” Their actions haunted them throughout their lives.

Another indicator of the depth of the pain Joseph endured was in the names he chose to give his sons, Ephraim and Manasseh. I’ll share the meaning in a few moments.

What’s the point? This story is in the Bible so that we can see God’s victory for us in hopeless situations. But there’s more to it. Could it be that these long dark seasons of the soul, like we see in Joseph’s life, are meant as opportunities for God to reveal His personal care and intimate love for us? For you, Reader? To take us so deep into a trust relationship with Him that the trials don’t really matter or at least don’t have power over us.

These prison bars are not meant to show a God somewhere far away on His thrown pointing a magic wand in our direction to set us free from our “circumstantial prison cells” They are to show us a God who gets up from His throne and comes to us, to sit with us in our prison, and carry us when we have no strength.

Yesterday I texted my friend to encourage her with something God showed me from His Word. I’m sharing it with you today.

You were the first thought on my mind when I woke up this morning. I just sat down to spend time in prayer before I begin my quiet time, and I opened my prayer journal to October.

Earlier this month, I wrote down Genesis 39:21 under my scripture prompt. \

“But the Lord was with Joseph in the prison and showed him his faithful love.”
Genesis 39:21

Read that slow a couple of times. I did. It got me thinking.

Couldn’t all-powerful God simply release him from prison? Wasn’t it in God’s power to bring to light Potiphar’s wife’s selfish schemes – justice for Joseph? But He didn’t.

The verse says, “the Lord was WITH Joseph in prison.” God is not bound by the prison bars. Joseph is. And God went IN to the prison with him.

It’s peculiar that an all-powerful God, who answers to no one and can do all, DIDN’T set Joseph free. He CHOSE to be WITH him in the prison. But there’s more.

I got stuck on another seeming contrast in words, “God showed His faithful LOVE. ..in the prison.” Isn’t that an irony?!

It doesn’t say –