Series – Joseph – The Promotable Life – Week 4
In our current series ‘Joseph – The Promotable Life’, we have been looking at the story of Joseph and what caused God to promote him through every hardship he faced. This week we turned to the story in Genesis 39:19-23 of Joseph being thrown into prison by Potiphar for a crime he didn’t commit. However, despite his physical confinement, we saw how God remained faithful to Joseph, and how he was again promoted, even in prison.
Some of us may be able to relate to the torment of being in a physical jail cell, but many may also find themselves in a metaphorical prison, that leaves them feeling confined physically, emotionally, or even spiritually. Your prison could be an addiction that has you locked in the same vicious cycle or a loveless, or a lonely marriage, an abusive relationship, or perhaps even a difficult job that you are desperate to escape from. There are circumstances in life that can leave us feeling trapped in a prison, but no matter what our ‘prison’ is, like Joseph, we too can let it change us for the better or not allow it to make us bitter.
When we are thrown into the prison pits of life, we can allow our hearts to be hardened and to give into resentful thoughts, or we can choose to keep our hearts soft, by trusting that God will use them for His glory and restore everything that we have lost because of it.
We can keep our heart softened by making sure it is continually drenched in the presence of God and us in His Word. This will allow us to lay down offenses and not allow our hearts to harden and poison us with its bitterness.
When the ‘prisons’ of our life become too difficult to bear or we start to lose hope, we can become tempted to tap out or want to give up or quit, but Joseph’s story reminds us that God is always with us and can even grant us favour in the eyes of our prison wardens or enemies.
Standing firm and being rooted deep in the foundations of our faith, whilst trusting in God’s will to be done, (see Luke 22:42), is what will keep us persevering in the dark dungeons of our prison. Rest in God’s promise that He has got this and will help us to endure past the pain and discomfort of our prison, to a wonderful purpose, where everything works out in the end.
There is something powerful and magical that can happen in our prison when we allow God to use it for His purpose. When we face trying circumstances, we need to press in and keep trusting God to break us free, instead of trying to run to escape, thereby missing the opportunity for us to be changed for the better by it, on the inside. It is in our prison, where our character is built and where our faith grows best if we will let it.
Unlike Joseph and Jesus who were imprisoned for crimes they did not commit, we are all guilty of sin and deserve a jail sentence, but through Christ’s blood that was shed on the cross, we have been given a free pass, releasing us spiritually from the confinement of our prisons and eternity in hell.
In conclusion, to recap the important rules of prison:
- Beware of bitterness!
- When times are tough and you want to quit, don’t!
- Allow God to use your prison to change you for the better.
Ephesians 6:13 reminds us that we need to put on every piece of God’s armour to protect us from the enemy who wants to harden our hearts and make us bitter, and instead we need to let it keep us standing strong in the battle, firmly grounded and fully trusting in God.