Be Still And Know

Philippians 1:12–13And I want you to know, my dear brothers and sisters, that everything that has happened to me here has helped to spread the Good News. For everyone here, including the whole palace guard, knows that I am in chains because of Christ.My chief memory of prison visits is the huge bunches of keys and the slamming of doors and I am sure that would have been just the same in Paul’s day. The lack of liberty must be terrible, and we have every reason to think that Paul’s years of incarceration would have been a degrading experience. But Paul has no time for moaning! He reflects that his time in prison has actually enabled the good news ofJesus to be spread.Paul’s various times in prison must have been desperately hard to bear, but he consistently focused on the fact that God had brought blessing through these times.This reminds me of Joseph’s experience in the Old Testament. His brothers hated him so much that they intended to murder him, but they eventually decided to sell him to some passing trade