Opportunities

May the God of all grace, who called us to His eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after you have suffered a while, perfect, establish, strengthen, and settle you.

1 Peter 5:10

Problems are often given to us by God to provide us greater opportunities. As God’s children, we need to learn how to look for the possibilities in our problems. God’s people have always worked this way. An entire section of Scripture, the “prison epistles,” was written while Paul was incarcerated in a Roman jail cell. The book of Revelation was written by John while he was exiled on the isle of Patmos. It was in prison that John Bunyan saw the great allegory that would later become the immortal Pilgrim’s Progress. Sometimes good things come from bad times.

Joseph learned from his prison experience that he was not forgotten by God. As a matter of fact, God used a relationship formed while Joseph was in prison to accomplish His plan.

I remember hearing Charles Colson say that his lowest times as a believer have been far more fulfilling that all his glory days in the White House when he was an unbeliever. During the lonely days of prison, he learned to know God. Sometimes loneliness and difficulties are necessary in our lives, because the problems are the means God uses to provide opportunities for us.