Locked down but not locked out of God’s plan
In South Africa we have lockdown you may have quarantine. Either way, you are restricted, prohibited, or kept in. Our world has changed and we have to make sense of what is going on. That is why I like the Bible. You can go back and see how to deal with difficult situations.
We are not the first people to experience some sort of locked-in experience. Kept inside for doing nothing wrong! There have been a few before us who have had it much worse than we have it now.
Look at Paul and Silas
Acts 16: 24–26, NKJV
“23And when they had laid many stripes on them, they threw them into prison, commanding the jailer to keep them securely. 24Having received such a charge, he put them into the inner prison and fastened their feet in the stocks.
25But at midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the prisoners were listening to them. 26Suddenly there was a great earthquake, so that the foundations of the prison were shaken; and immediately all the doors were opened and everyone’s chains were loosed.”
What did they do? “praying and singing hymns to God” We must learn from them.
And in Acts 16:30–34, NKJV. Is it a church that was planted there? Could this prison encounter of Paul and Silas have caused a church to be planted?
It’s all in God’s plan.
What about Joseph?
Genesis 39: 20–21, NKJV
“20Then Joseph’s master took him and put him into the prison, a place where the king’s prisoners were confined. And he was there in the prison. 21But the Lord was with Joseph and showed him mercy, and He gave him favor in the sight of the keeper of the prison.”
Joseph was not self-consumed, his eyes were open and he was concerned about the other prisoners (love your neighbor as you love yourself?). Joseph was inside the prison but not outside God’s plan.
And what was the end of this story?
Better than before prison!
Even if we listen to the experts who say everything is going to change.
I believe God has a better plan.
Have you heard about the siege of Samaria?
II Kings 6:25, NKJV
“25And there was a great famine in Samaria, and indeed they besieged it until a donkey’s head was sold for eighty shekels of silver, and one-fourth of a kab of dove droppings for five shekels of silver.”
Have we had it so bad that we consider eating dove droppings? How was it possible for God to turn that situation around? Have we resigned to the voice of the world that everything is going to be bad from now on in? Are there people who are hopeless?
We try and think about how this thing can be turned around. Some people say it’s the end. Only God can say when it’s the end, when it’s your end.
As long as you are breathing God still has a plan for your life.
II Kings 7:1–2, NKJV
“1Then Elisha said, “Hear the word of the Lord. Thus says the Lord: ‘Tomorrow about this time a seah of fine flour shall be sold for a shekel, and two seahs of barley for a shekel, at the gate of Samaria.’ ”
2So an officer on whose hand the king leaned answered the man of God and said, “Look, if the Lord would make windows in heaven, could this thing be?”
And he said, “In fact, you shall see it with your eyes, but you shall not eat of it.”
Do not be cynical. Do not underestimate what God can do. God can do more in a day than a man can do in a lifetime.
Sing and pray like Paul, continue to love God and your neighbor like Joseph, and know that God can still do a miracle no matter what. Just like Elisha said.
All bible quotes are from https://www.bible.com/bible/114/2KI.7.NKJV
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