Considering the circumstances described above, Paul was not considering the circumstances to be content. Obviously, "under the circumstances" is a place Paul avoided. How could a man go through all those things listed above and yet be full of joy, hope, and contentment? That is certainly something worthy of spending some time to understand, of spending time to find out how we can "learn the secret of being content in any and every situation."

Remember Paul’s attitude expressed in chapter one? "For I know that this shall turn to my salvation through your prayer, and the supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ, according to my earnest expectation and my hope, that in nothing I shall be ashamed, but that with all boldness, as always, so now also Christ shall be magnified in my body, whether it be by life, or by death. For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain."

You probably know that we could sum up everything Paul says in this epistle by his statement about learning to be content in any and every situation. The message of this book, from beginning to end, is CONTENTMENT. Everybody is craving peace and contentment. This could sound like a religious truism. This little epistle gives us the answer to achieving inner peace and tranquility, i.e. contentment.

When he thanks them he takes a moment to assure them that he is not filled with joy now because of the offering, as if he was not filled with joy before. ("I rejoice greatly in the Lord that at last you have renewed your concern for me. Indeed, you have been concerned, but you had no opportunity to show it. I am not saying this because I am in need ...") He says, "I have long since learned to be content when there is no money and to be content when there is money. I have learned to be content when my stomach is rumbling and when my stomach is full." ("for I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances. I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want.")

Christianity gives us that secret of how to be content. The whole book hinges around this theme of contentment that somehow came to Paul’s mind when he was handed the love offering. He was saying, "Hey, thanks for the love offering, but you know all the peace, well, I had it before. All the contentment, I had it when I had no money. I will enjoy this money, but I had contentment before."

The Christian is not necessarily the person that is poverty stricken. The Christian is the person who has the ability to have riches without going overboard. He can also enjoy poverty and enjoy God. It doesn’t make any difference. When he has possessions, he holds them loosely. His knuckles are never white, hanging on to them. God can have them if He wants. I will keep them if He allows. It doesn’t make any difference.

It is interesting the way Paul puts this. "I have learned to be content." Now that word "learned," that Paul is using, is an interesting little word. In the Greek it means "I have been initiated, I have been instructed, I have been let in on the secret." The secret I have been let in on, is the secret of being content in every circumstance that you can imagine. "Hungry? I am content. Full? I am content. Poverty? It is all right. Rich? It is OK. It doesn’t matter. I have been let in on the secret. I have been initiated into the greatest secret of the Christian life, how to remain stable all the way through. 

That immediately means that NOT EVERYBODY KNOWS THIS. It wouldn’t be a secret if everybody knew it. You wouldn’t have to be initiated.  Paul said, "I have been let in on a secret. I have come to an understanding of one of the mysteries of life. You don’t have to be ALWAYS UP AND DOWN. You don’t always have to be subject to DIS-contentment. You don’t have to always be wanting something that you don’t have or have to have things the way they aren’t."

The secret is that I can grasp hold of life, no matter where I am, how I am, or what I am and I can be content. Not wanting something else, not wishing what I did have once, but what I now have, I can be content.

The word "CONTENT" is a very strong word. In the margin of some Bibles it says "self-sufficient." I have learned or I have been initiated into the secret of being self-sufficient in all circumstances and all situations. Another way to say it would be "ABLE." I have learned to be able or I have learned to be strong, sufficient, to take what comes without flinching. So today we loose everything, well, we just go on. We don’t dissolve in a heap in the corner.

So tomorrow it seems that all of life is pouring its benefits on you. Well, you don’t get silly and puffed up with pride.  You can handle it. You are sufficient to be rich and you are sufficient to be poor. Actually, I would say that it is easier to be poor than it is to be rich. There are more temptations and problems that go with being rich. Paul says, "I have learned how to handle riches and I have learned how to handle poverty. I have learned how to go on when my stomach is empty. I have learned how to handle always having enough."

Do you realize the people that have the biggest problem with covetousness are the poor? The person who is always craving what he doesn't have is coveting it. The people that don’t have that problem are the ones who have money. It is the people who don’t have it that are most often guilty of the "love of money." Check who keeps the State coffers full from the State Lottery. Right?

To be content is the absence of ENVY. You are not wishing that you were here, or wishing you were there. You are not complaining that you are you, not wishing you were somebody else. You are content that you are you. Have you ever looked into the mirror and said, "I am a wonderful person. It is nice to be me. I would not want to be anyone else?" You should, you know. God made you. Don’t insult His work. You will have reached a milestone in your mental development as a Christian when you can be glad that you are you, glad that you are where you are, glad that you have what you have. You will be content.

Most people spend their life in a fantasy world, fanaticizing that they will be where they are not, or that they will be what they are not, or wish they were someone else. It seems to be the American way. The Christian is the true realist. He is content. He can accept life as it is, not as he wishes it could be, but as it is. He dares to look at life as it really is and embrace it, celebrate his humanity. This is the Christian.  This person is never squashed under the circumstances, as if the circumstances were a prison he has gotten into. This man is always rejoicing in them. Rejoicing, not meaning happiness, rejoicing is seeing through the happenings to the God of the happenings. Rejoicing is in God.

The contented person doesn’t complain. He doesn’t envy things to be other or envy things to be different. He is not a prisoner of the circumstances, he walks triumphantly through them. He is content. He is able. He is sufficient.

What is the secret? Paul said, "I have been initiated. Not everybody can see this. I just walk a path and it doesn’t make any difference what is happening around me, I am rejoicing. I am unmoved by the waves of circumstance."

What is the secret?  What fantastic PRINCIPLE is it? It isn’t a principle. It is a PERSON. He said, "I have learned I can do all things through Christ Who strengthens me." The word "strengthen" in the Greek and in the Amplified is "infused." In England, when they make tea, they call it "fusing." They leave the tea in the pot until it is gone into the water. It has been fused until it is tea-water.

This is the word that is used. He says, "Christ has been infused into me. I am able. I am sufficient. I am SELF-SUFFICIENT WITH THE SUFFICIENCY OF CHRIST. I can face any circumstance and I will be unflinching. I can go through anything and I won’t be complaining. I can go through riches or poverty, hunger or an abundance, it doesn’t matter. I have been let in on the secret. The secret of all life is a Person."

Now, either you know what I am talking about, or you don't. Either you have been initiated, let in on the secret or you haven’t. Some people will immediately miss what I am saying. They will think I am talking about the principles of religion or straight doctrine. But that isn’t it, is it? Because some of us had good doctrine for years and missed the whole point, we didn’t know what life was all about. Paul said, "I have discovered the secret of life. It is being ‘infused’ by a Person. It is having a NOW, DYNAMIC, INWARD RELATIONSHIP TO THE PERSON OF JESUS CHRIST - SO THAT, FOR ME TO LIVE IS CHRIST."

He says, "For me to be alive in any given circumstance is Jesus Christ. I am alive in it. It is really me. It is more me than it has ever been. It is me set free from all my hang-ups, all my mental blocks. It is ME, that glorious person God made, but it is me letting Jesus Christ live through me. It is me seeing the circumstance, but it isn’t, it is Christ in me, seeing it through my eyes. It is me handling it, but it is me handling it out of the resources of the Christ Who lives in me."

 When you go out in a boat to fish and you are out in the middle of nowhere, how can you find your way back? How do you know which way to go? It looks like just one big expanse. A knowledgeable person will know to spot a fixed point on shore and then when he is ready to come home, he just aligns with that point and heads for home.

I thought about that. All of life is such a maze. Life is so big with so many things happening and a wave hits me there and a current takes me here. Paul says, "I have discovered the secret of homing in on what life is all about. You have an alignment to a Person. You bring all your life into line with a Person, a dynamic, now relationship. Now I can handle anything. I know I am right on course, although I don’t understand what that circumstance is saying, I don’t have the slightest idea why that current is pulling me, BUT I KNOW THAT THAT PERSON I AM IN ALIGNMENT WITH HAS IT ALL UNDER HIS CONTROL. While I am aligned to Him I am content. It is all right!"

You see, God, the Christian’s God, the God of the Bible, does not remove obstacles. That doesn’t set well with some who are deliverance crazy. God, to the average Christian in some circles, is the Deliverer Man. As soon as we get into any kind of trouble, He is called upon to deliver us, which usually means, "Get me out of this" or "Remove that from me." The obstacle has to be taken away. The pressure has to be alleviated. Many Christians go around in that horrible little circle and that is their God. He is the Deliverer. That is all He can do, deliver, deliver, deliver.

I challenge you to read the WHOLE Bible and you will find that there is very little in the Bible about deliverance, very little. Deliverance is not a victory. Really. It is no victory if every time I get into trouble, God gets me out of it. That only means that now I am scared that I am going to face it again. I got out of it, but I am still scared of it. If ever it comes back, I still don’t know how to handle it, BECAUSE HE DELIVERED ME.

I find in the Bible, the whole Bible, that the normal way of God’s dealing is that He leaves me right there under the pressure, in the place that isn’t very nice, in the darkness, or however you want to describe it. He causes me to have a new relationship with Him that I would never have known about but for the pressure ... but for the darkness.

What happens now is that I see that pressure, I see that darkness as I hadn’t seen it before. I see that it brings to me a relationship with God that I could never have had before. Now I can just smile at the darkness and I can say, "You can’t scare me anymore.  IN the problem, IN the circumstance, I am more than a conqueror through Jesus Christ because I have a new relationship. I have discovered a new vital supply of Christ in me. I don’t need out of this. I can stay right here."

The three Hebrew boys were thrown into the fire. They weren’t delivered OUT of it, they went IN to it. But in it they discovered the God Who KEPT them INSIDE a fire. So persecution didn’t bother them any more. They could laugh in the face of it. Daniel was thrown to the lions. He wasn’t delivered from the den of lions. In the den of lions he discovered something about God he never knew before. After that he could laugh at persecution, it didn’t make any difference. Do you see what I mean?

God did not deliver Israel OUT of the wilderness. He brought them again and again to the same problem. Under the pressure of that problem HE became to them their SUPPLY. 

Paul said that sometimes it is hunger. Why doesn’t God get you out of hunger? Because he is not interested in getting you out of hunger. He wants people who can look hunger in the face and still be content. That is a miracle.

Paul said that sometimes it is poverty. Why doesn’t God get you out of poverty? God isn’t in the banking business. That is not why you become a Christian, although to read some books, you might think so. God is much more interested in developing in me a contentment that whether I am rich or poor, it doesn’t make any difference. I have found another alignment. CHRIST. I have discovered HE IS THE SECRET OF ALL LIVING. HE IS MY INNER RESOURCE. HE IS THE ONE THAT HAS IT ALL TOGETHER. I have that relationship to Him. I am content, I can handle it. I am not delivered OUT of, but delivered IN it.

That is the miracle of the Christian God. I find that the world invents a God Who is not real, He is the God of their fantasy. He is the God Who is always removing obstacles, always running to make life easier for me. He is sort of an oversized genie. He is always coming to make sure everything is easy, a bed of roses. Self, the big "I" invents a God Who serves my interests. God is always there to get me out of trouble.

The God of the Bible says, "Now, here we are. You are under pressure. You are in the darkness. I am not going to get you out of it, but IN that darkness and pressure I am with you, I am in you, My fingerprints are all over this situation, I have it all under control and you are going to come to know Me in this, in a way you have never known Me before. So you will be able to laugh at this. I know it looks evil, but it isn’t really evil. Watch Me and see Me in a way you have never seen Me before. This is a means I am using this for your good and My purpose."

This is the secret Paul has been initiated into. Now you can look at darkness. Now you can face pressure. Now it doesn’t make any difference, good, bad or indifferent, you can face it. You know the secret. IN THAT DARKNESS, UNDER THAT PRESSURE, CHRIST IS MY LIFE ... FOR ME TO LIVE IS CHRIST.... HE IS THE SECRET.

The verses we have just commented on were brought about because he was in jail.  He received a gift but he said he was content BEFORE he received it. That is why he wrote it. What was he doing in jail? He was only there because of the hatred of the Jews. He had once been their rabbi, but now he is persecuted by them. They hated him with a mad, fanatical hatred. Brought before Festus, he then stands before Agrippa. Remember, he appealed to Caesar. So he was put on a ship and taken to Rome. In a hired house, it was his prison. He was kept under guard inside the house.

Now, remember that Paul was a world traveler. He said, "Woe is me if I preach not the gospel." "Christ constrains me (a medical word for a very high fever). I am carried by a fever of love for Christ inside of me." He had traveled a great deal preaching the gospel. He was a man that enjoyed being on the move.

Now he is pacing up and down, hemmed in by four walls, looking out the same window all the time with the same view. At the door there are two Roman soldiers. Down the hall there are two more soldiers. He can’t move. He can’t see anybody unless they come to visit him. He was under arrest.

Paul was a human being. Sometimes I wish we didn’t have the "St." before his name, because immediately it puts him on another plane. We are all saints in Christ. He is a normal human being. He is one of us. He who had been as free as a bird, going everywhere preaching and founding churches, now is cooped up in one little room. Put yourself in his place. It must have been frustrating.

What does Paul say? Look at the verses we have written at the beginning of this lesson. He talks about ship wrecks, distresses, hardships, beatings, etc. He says, "It is all right. I have learned under all circumstances to be content. I can handle it.  I don’t have to have a crowd in order to feel I am doing the will of God. I don’t have to be rushing here and there to fulfill my personality.  It’s all right to be cooped up like a chicken in a cage. Its all right to be guarded as if I am a dangerous animal. I am still a Christian. I am content. I am still sufficient for it."

How do you do that Paul? Tell me your secret. I know it is Christ, but how does that work? "Christ is my secret." Yes, I know, Paul, you have been initiated. You have seen the Person of Christ, but tell me, in practical terms, how does that work out while you are cooped up there in four walls for two years.

I think the first line of this letter tells me at least one thing he saw. "Bond servants of Christ Jesus" I love that. I think I would have liked to see the look on the faces of the soldiers when they censored his letters. As far as they were concerned, Paul was the prisoner and slave of Nero and Rome. The key on the door was stamped with the emperor’s seal. These are the men that guarded him and held him in his cell.

Calmly he writes that he is not a prisoner of Nero. Nero doesn’t hold him in his cell. He is there because he is the "servant and the prisoner" of Jesus Christ. We have read that over and over again, but have we ever seen it? Paul says, "I am not the prisoner of a circumstance. I am not the prisoner of a man. I am not the prisoner of those Jewish mobs. I am not the prisoner of fate as if by the collision of some unseen forces I happen to be here. I AM THE PRISONER OF JESUS CHRIST. I HAVE BEEN INITIATED INTO THE KEY TO LIFE. I HAVE BEEN INITIATED INTO THE SECRET OF LIVING. IT IS A RELATIONSHIP TO A PERSON. THE NUMBER ONE RELATIONSHIP IS HE IS LORD OVER EVERYTHING. I AM NOT HERE UNDER NERO'S AUTHORITY, I AM HERE UNDER MY LORD'S AUTHORITY." In 1:16 he says that he is there "by appointment."

He says that he was placed where he was by Jesus Christ. Do you really believe that? Do you realize it is true of you, too? You say, "Well, I didn’t pray about this. I don’t know if it is the will of God." I didn’t ask you that. Do you really think, do you really believe God is hanging on your praying about His will? The whole universe is hanging on you deciding with your great WILL to go God’s way. God says, "Whewww! I was worried there for a minute, but you finally made the right choice." 

Look here, my friend, whether you prayed about your job or not, Somebody bigger than the employment office got you that job. You are there by Divine appointment. The house you are living in, the car you are driving, etc. Don’t start saying you need to pray to see if it is God’s will for you to live there. Of course it is God’s will that you live there. You are there, aren’t you? When God wants to move you, He will move you. You are where you are by Divine appointment. When I learned to accept that, a new peace came into my life.

I find so many asking if this or that is God’s will. Stop that! God will tell you. God never moves you FROM something. He always moves you TO it. We may mistakenly pray to be taken from something, but our focus is wrong. You don’t just leave something and wonder what is going to happen next. You always move TO something. You can forget about the will of God, that’s God’s business, God will look after that. IT IS FOR YOU TO LIVE WHERE YOU ARE. Stay focused on Him and He will show you Himself in every situation.

Face it now, whether it's the house where you live, the people you live with, the people you work with, the office or wherever you are, understand that however you got there, there was Somebody bigger than both of us that caused you to be there. Now embrace it in the name of Jesus Christ. Understand that you are not a prisoner of the circumstances. You are a prisoner of Jesus Christ. You are APPOINTED the same as Paul was.

What did Paul do while in prison? How did he think?  "I eagerly expect and hope that I will in no way be ashamed, but will have sufficient courage so that now as always Christ will be exalted in my body, whether by life or by death." He said "as always." That is his "earnest expectation" and hope. He said he was expecting that. He said there will be a provision of the Spirit of Jesus Christ. He said he "will have sufficient courage" provided for him.

Paul is saying that he knows if he is appointed to this place, if he has been placed there by his Commander, he can safely say that there will be the supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ and if He is supplying him, he will be completely sufficient for whatever this appointment demands. Right? And HE KNOWS THAT HE SHALL GLORIFY CHRIST, FOR CHRIST HAS PLACED HIM THERE FOR THAT PURPOSE. And so it is with you where you are. If you are seeing this, this is a tremendous statement of strength. It is complete rest in the trustworthiness of God.

Paul’s attitude is: I HAVE SEEN SOMETHING. I HAVE BEEN LET IN ON THE SECRET ... JESUS CHRIST IS LORD. I HAVE SUBMITTED TO HIM AND HE NOW IS THE SOURCE OF ALL MY STRENGTH. What about tomorrow? I KNOW I WILL BE FILLED WITH THE SPIRIT. AND I KNOW THAT I SHALL MAGNIFY CHRIST IN MY BODY WHETHER BY LIFE OR BY DEATH. He says that he KNOWS that is the way it is going to be. That is the way it ALWAYS is.

He is saying, "I know Jesus Christ is Lord. He is Lord in this place, in this prison, over these guards ... HE IS LORD! And I know I am going to see the glory of God. It is unthinkable that it should be any other way." Do you see how Paul is looking at it? He is not waiting for some explosive divine revelation. He is not waiting to be "slain in the spirit." He has seen something. He has been LET IN ON A SECRET. Now he can confidently look at life and say, "Therefore it is going to be like this. I know. I know He is Lord. If He is Lord, the Spirit lives in me. If He is Lord, He has it all under control; therefore, I don’t have to pray about it. I can say predictably that this is how it is going to be." Do you see that?

"According to my earnest expectation ...." In the Greek this is a fabulous word. It is one of those words in the Greek that heaps word on top of word to try and say what it means. It means something like stretching your neck out while looking up. You are straining through the darkness. You are trying to see something that you know is there and you are going to keep on looking regardless of anything else. You know it is there. That is the word: EARNEST EXPECTATION.

Paul said, "In this dungeon, you had better believe there are pressures. Of course, there is darkness, but I know Jesus Christ is LORD. I know that in this place, in this place where I have been put, I SHALL SEE the glory of God. I know that. So I am straining to see. Any minute I know that I am going to see it. It is my expectation. There will always be the supply of the Spirit of Christ. I shall be able and sufficient for anything that happens and I know (sooner or later) I am going to see the glory of God as to why I am here."

It is something like those holograms that look like a sheet of colored patterns at first glance. If you stare at them, something strange happens. I had one that looked like a framed sheet of blue and black patterns. It was entitled "The Cross." Unless you really tried hard, you could not see a cross, but if you looked in just the right way, you could see it. It seemed to jump out at you. There is was. It was not only a cross, but below and to the left was a nativity scene with Mary, Joseph and the three wise men. Up above them was a bright star. Below and to the right was an empty tomb with the stone rolled away. 

It was a long time before my wife could "see" it. She would stand in front of it for long periods of time until one day she saw it. There it was in all its splendor, just as I had said. Now there were many people who came to our apartment who never realized what was in the frame that looked simply like a pretty pattern of lines and color. But if I pointed it out to them, they would begin to try to "see" it. After awhile, usually, if they kept at it, they would see it too.

Will you listen to what Paul is telling you? You are in a situation, a job, a place, a condition, that if you will dare to join Paul in his EARNEST EXPECTATION, if you will make it your EARNEST EXPECTATION to SEE the glory of God, if you will stain and stretch your spiritual neck to see it ... you will. You will see God bringing glory to Himself in your situation. Don’t miss out. Don’t ignore the truth of this. Join Paul in making it your earnest expectation that in thiscircumstance, as in all things, the glory of Christ will be made manifest regardless how dark it may appear.

What are you seeing? Are you looking for the Roman soldiers? They are there. Are you looking for cold, dank imprisonment? It is there. Are you looking for pressure? You will feel it. Are you looking for bad news? There is plenty of that. Are you looking for something to complain about? There is more than you can imagine.

It depends what you are looking for. I think it is very significant that in this circumstance Paul wrote: "Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable-- if anything is excellent or praiseworthy-- THINK ABOUT SUCH THINGS." You say, "I can’t help what I think." Of course you can. If you can’t help what you think, then you can’t help what you do, because "as a man thinks in his heart, so is he." If I am not responsible for what I think, then I am not responsible for what I do. I AM RESPONSIBLE FOR WHAT I DO, SO, THEREFORE, I AM RESPONSIBLE FOR WHAT I THINK.

You say, "But things are so bad." Of course they are, but what are you looking for. Paul says, "I know things are bad, but that is not what I am straining to see. I know the glory of Christ is here. I know that. He told me it is so. I am appointed to this place. I am appointed in this place to bring forth the glory that would not be otherwise."

In the place where you are (wherever that may be, office, campus, home, etc.) you are appointed there to see and to bring forth the glory of God that could never come forth unless you were there. God has appointed you there for that purpose. If you want to look at the night, there is plenty of it. If you want to look at the guards and the circumstances that seem to imprison you, there is plenty to talk about. BUT IF YOU HAVE BEEN LET IN ON THE SECRET, YOU WON’T BOTHER WITH THAT. With EARNEST EXPECTATION, with neck stretched forward, eyes strained and piercing, you are looking for something else. Do you follow me?

When I say that we are content, I do not mean that we are satisfied with the way things are. This is important for you to understand. The fatalist just gives up and lays down. The Christian is content. He embraces the situation, but that doesn’t mean that he is satisfied with the way things are. Nor does it mean that he expects them to stay that way. He is content though. He doesn’t sit around fantasizing the way things ought to be, that is envy and idolatry. He knows he is here and it is bad, but he is appointed to be here and he embraces it for the glory of God.

It doesn’t mean to say that you condone what is there. Things are going to change and you know it. But they are not going to change because of rebellion, complaining or whining. They will change because the Spirit of Christ is going to change it through you. Do you follow me on this? It is important.

So Paul changed that entire guard. Many of the Roman soldiers were converted to Christ and went all over the world (at the expense of Rome) evangelizing, telling the gospel everywhere Rome sent them. Actually, there is good historical proof that these guards went to England and shared the gospel. You see, the place of oppression, the place of imprisonment had become the place of opportunity. That wasn’t jail any more. That was just what some people called it. It wasn’t jail, it was a mission field. He had been sent there, appointed. He changed the whole situation, just because he said, "In this place there is the glory of God. Now I am going to see if I can find it." The place of oppression became the place of opportunity.

If he had not seen this, he would have been so busy writing requests for prayer for him to get out of there, that nothing good would have happened. God graced him with this knowledge. He sought to see the glory of Christ that was there. Knowing he was appointed there, knowing the secret, he became the light of the world. All the rays of light that came from Paul became the good news that saved those soldiers.

Paul was able to see that what was happening was not just for the immediate and for him. It was for the whole church. Many times he makes a similar observation to 2Corinthians 1: 6-9  "If we are distressed, it is for your comfort and salvation; if we are comforted, it is for your comfort, which produces in you patient endurance of the same sufferings we suffer. And our hope for you is firm, because we know that just as you share in our sufferings, so also you share in our comfort. We do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about the hardships we suffered in the province of Asia. We were under great pressure, far beyond our ability to endure, so that we despaired even of life. Indeed, in our hearts we felt the sentence of death. But this happened that we might not rely on ourselves but on God, who raises the dead."

You go through an experience and you discover the glory of God. You see Jesus Christ and you experience Him as you would never have done before. Now it was marvelous for your, but really it was for everyone else, all the people that you passed it on to. Haven’t you noticed that sometimes you go through all the problems and others get all the benefits. You go through an experience and it takes you weeks to see what it is all about and when you have the answer, you  share it with somebody and they just walk though it. They don’t go though any problem, they just coast on your answer.

Paul saw that that is how the Kingdom of God works. He said, "It was for your sakes that I was put through all of this." Once he began speaking out and the soldiers began being converted and sharing their faith, other Christians, who had been silent, suddenly start speaking out. That is how it works. It is not just for you. It is for the body of Christ that you are where you are and in what you are in. Do you see this? Because Paul embraced where he was, the whole body of Christ prospered. They came alive in Rome just because Paul took his place in the suffering of Christ.

You are appointed to your place. You are where you are and you are receiving the strength you are receiving in order that the whole body of Christ might receive strength. Just think of the little note that Paul scribbled for Epaphroditus to take back the his church. Did Paul have any idea that 2,000 years later you and I would be blessed by it? Did he know I would be writing this lesson as a result of his experience?

Stop putting down the significance of what God is doing in your life. You can have the same earnest expectation that Paul had. Don’t be so foolish as to try to judge your ministry. You don’t know enough to make a judgment. Be still. How foolish can we be? I don’t know who is going to read this, or who might go on from this to much more because of it. I don’t know, and I don’t care. I just want to see God’s glory and enjoy Him forever.

If we would make it the rule of our life to earnestly expect Him to be glorified in the most difficult of our experiences, those experiences would cease to be so difficult and we would bask in the precious knowledge that