“But I would ye should understand, brethren, that the things which happened unto me have fallen out rather unto the furtherance of the gospel; So that my bonds in Christ are manifest in all the palace, and in all other places; And many of the brethren in the Lord, waxing confident by my bonds, are much more bold to speak the word without fear.” – Philippians 1:12-14 KJV

It’s not easy to take a negative situation and find the good in it. Yet this is exactly what Paul did. And this is something that we need to put into practice more and more too, because “all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.” (Romans 8:28 KJV). And just as Paul emphasized this idea, that is, that all things work together for good to those who love God, he exercised faith in this belief while he was in chains, and was therefore able to find courage in God while being in the midst of trouble. Isn’t it interesting how that works? God allows us to go through hardship to show us what our faith is really made of.

But there’s something else that I want to make a note of that is even more striking. Paul said that as a result of being in chains the gospel was being furthered in that the whole palace guard became aware of it and people even became bolder to preach the gospel. This teaches us a very important lesson about suffering: sometimes God allows us to go through hardship to make His influence known to those who do not know Him, and to give courage to those who do know Him to share their faith in a more effective way. In other words, it’s not always about us. When experiencing trials there’s a tendency to say, “Why is this happening to me?” Wouldn’t it be better to just simply say, “Why is this happening?” After all, when self is left out and Jesus Christ is brought into focus, that’s when we will really begin to see the big picture, as that’s when we see that God’s blessing is always present; but His blessings can be overlooked simply by focusing all of our attention on the badness of our situation, which means we need to take caution in what we choose to behold.

Listen, just because you may be in what appears to be a bad spot in life, that doesn’t mean God isn’t with you, working out His good will in and through you to further His kingdom, and paving the way for a brighter future for His people (not just you). Indeed, we can believe many things about God; but there comes a time when we must put our beliefs into practice. This marks the great divide of merely having an intellectual assent to the truth and knowing Jesus Christ. Being doers of the word and not hearers only is vital to our growth in Christ. That said, what will you choose to do with your experience? How will you look at it from this point on? Satan wants you to overlook the fact that God’s blessing is present. Don’t let his ugliness blind your eyes to the facts; instead, look to Jesus Christ and know that He is at work to bring about a happy ending to your situation.