I recently got a Facebook message from a well-meaning Christian friend:
“God has seen everything you’ve been going through, and He told me to tell you ‘IT’S OVER’! Your trial has ended, and now God’s about to open up the windows of heaven to bless you beyond your wildest dreams!!!!!”
(Full disclosure: I may have actually miscounted the number of exclamation points. My apologies).
Then they said if I didn’t forward this to three or more people, I really didn’t love God and enormous trials would come my way (but I thought God said my trials are over!’?).
I truly hate stuff like that – things that build up false hopes, and do so in God’s name. God doesn’t decree your trial is over just because I posted some message on your Facebook page. That’s not faith, it’s superstition.
Can you imagine me going to a prison and saying, “GOD SAYS YOUR TRIALS ARE OVER! YOU’RE ALL FREE!”? I can only imagine the blank stares I’d receive. Or even worse, if I said it to people with a child in the hospital fighting a terminal disease?
The hard news is there are times when it’s God’s will for us to be held in a trying situation. Passionless marriages, rebellious children, dead-end jobs, and even extended illnesses (sorry, faith-healing friends) are places where God sometimes chooses to deny our parole. And though it’s true God doesn’t want us to be happy when we are in rebellion against Him, there are times when we are walking with Him that we may remain stuck in tough circumstances.
You remember Joseph in the Old Testament? He’s the sibling who bragged to all his brothers God would make him ruler over them all. Though Joseph was gifted by God to interpret dreams, he lacked tact and wound up dumped in a well. A stream of crises led him to a prison, though he was innocent of any wrongdoing.
Like Joseph, you need to understand one reason you may be stuck in some personal “prison” is God Himself is holding you there. I know we can’t imagine God doing that, but He really does have His reasons.
I remember one lady I was counseling with marriage problems. She told me God told her to get a divorce, even though it was clear the marriage could be saved. How did she know God was OK with it? Because “God wouldn’t want me to be unhappy, would He?”
But contrary to popular belief, God is not that interested in just you being happy.
You might want to read that last line again. Let it sink in. Feel the warm fuzzies draining from your body. But it’s the truth, because God knows our “happiness” is often a flighty thing, based on fickle feelings. Instead of a temporal happiness, He want’s us to have a firm peace and confidence that comes from a relationship with Him.
As opposed to happiness, God is totally invested in making you complete, fulfilled, and mature (James 1:4). And quite often, He’ll accomplish that by leading you directly into an extended trial – a prison of circumstances. His goal is never to do you harm, but instead to produce the character traits you’re lacking.
I’ve felt trapped several times in my life, only to have God deny me any way of escape. I’ve held jobs where I was disrespected, spied on, and gossiped about even though I was doing a pretty good job. So I’d put out resumes. pray for God’s help, and wait for the offers to pour in…
But I got nothing. Crickets…no bites at all. Getting new opportunities had never been a problem for me before. What the heck was going on?
It was clear after a while God was the one shutting down every attempt I made to escape. I discovered God was often keeping me there to prepare for my future. During my personal prison, He developed abilities I’d never had before, and grew a resilience in me to face new challenges.
My prison was actually the key to a brighter future – it was truly the doorway to my destiny.
Joseph learned a great deal in his prison. He learned wisdom and maturity to go with his spiritual gifts. He learned to recognize the suffering of other inmates. And his prison actually put him in the perfect position to minister to Pharaoh when his dreams needed interpreting. All the negative experiences were indispensable steps toward his destiny, which ended up blessing not only him but his own people as well.
Maybe that’s why God has you trapped somewhere, in some miserable situation. He is growing you, streeeeeeeetching you, maturing you. He may also be using you to help someone else trapped there. But He promises that, in the end, it will all be worth it.
Right now, you need to rest in the fact that when the time is right, a higher authority will turn the key Himself. He and He alone knows when you’re ready to be free. He is watching your progress, rooting for you, encouraging you not to give up. He will most surely give you your freedom, but not until you’re ready.
So stop trying to pick the lock.
Stop whining about how long it’s taking, because that may only make the wait even longer. Stop trying to dig a tunnel out of your cell with a spoon: you’ll only frustrate yourself. Stop fighting, and embrace what God wants you to learn and who He wants you to help there in that cell next to yours.
Then suddenly, when you least expect it, the door will swing wide open and you’ll step into your destiny. And the man or woman who walks out of that cell will be 100 times better, because they were willing to let God take His time while they were “doing time” in their own personal prison.
