I am going to be oh, so honest here. Sometimes our circumstances...suck.
“But I want you to know, brethren, that the things which happened to me have actually turned out for the furtherance of the gospel,”
Philippians 1:12
Paul most likely wrote this letter during his first Roman imprisonment. Most certainly, prison is on no one’s Top Ten dream destinations. Yet, in this place of being held against his will Paul introduces us to the excessive lavishness of our God to fulfill and satisfy our lives no matter what is taking place and where it is happening. God has a higher plan.
Paul is not calling us to gloss over real, difficult, and challenging circumstances that are trying to our souls. He is calling us to intimately know the Savior.To genuinely know His presence, His touch, His voice, His strength, and to experience His love in the deepest parts of our being. When Christ’s presence becomes our daily life, cultivated by simply taking the time to be with Him, and to experience (not just read) His Word, life changes. It did for me...it can for you
As we really begin to know the Lover of our souls, we will be able to agree with Paul in Philippians 1:18: “In this I rejoice, yes, and will rejoice.” No matter where we are.