Chain Gang
Have you ever been in chains? if so, you are in good company.
In several of his letters Paul wrote that he was in chains for Christ. He didn’t hide the fact that he was in them, but was proud of the fact that it could be used for a purpose. He explained why he was not ashamed:
In several of his letters Paul wrote that he was in chains for Christ. He didn’t hide the fact that he was in them, but was proud of the fact that it could be used for a purpose. He explained why he was not ashamed:
- Through them he was an ambassador allowing him to fearlessly preach the mystery of the Gospel
- It allowed him to defend and confirm the good news of God’s grace
- Being imprisoned was actually an advantage because it served to advance the Gospel
- His chains made others more confident in proclaiming Christ
- The situation allowed him access to preach to those he would not normally have access to
You and I are also in chains at times…no I’m not speaking of
physical chains of imprisonment, but chains that still confine and hold us
back. Each of us has different chains. For some they are the chains of the
past, for others it is the chains of finances or illness or divorce. You can
even fill in the blank with your chains of pain and suffering.
We might wonder why we must experience the situations that we
are do, but if we look at it through the lens perspective that Paul did, it may
help us to see that each and every situation, positive and negative can be used
to promote Christ and His Good News.
It might be that a neighbor, a co-worker, a fellow patient,
a homeless person, a child or anyone else that we encounter while in chains is
in need of a Savior. So will you embrace your chains and pray that God will use
them to open up opportunities for sharing what God has done for you and in you.
Colossians 4:3 And pray for us, too, that God may open a door
for our message, so that we may proclaim the mystery of Christ, for which I am
in chains.
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