Succeeding in prison!

Genesis 39:19-23 NLT

Potiphar was furious when he heard his wife’s story about how Joseph had treated her. So he took Joseph and threw him into the prison where the king’s prisoners were held, and there he remained. But the Lord was with Joseph in the prison and showed him his faithful love. And the Lord made Joseph a favourite with the prison warden. Before long, the warden put Joseph in charge of all the other prisoners and over everything that happened in the prison. The warden had no more worries, because Joseph took care of everything. The Lord was with him and caused everything he did to succeed.

The story of Joseph, a non-fictional account, has so many life lessons for us as believers.

He went from being daddy's favourite, probably a bit spoilt and full of himself, to a falsely accused rapist in a foreign jail. What a come down.

Surely it was enough to knock his teenage dreams and faith in God right out of his heart.

He was forced to be far away from his loved ones, separated by prison walls, hundreds of miles from home.

I like this NLT version of events - but note where Joseph was being held - where the king's prisoners were! The most unlikely place, but THE place where God could work his promotion and salvation miracles.

Say if Joseph had chosen to throw away his faith and dreams and gone along with the crowd in jail? How much devastation would have followed. The big famine would have killed many, many people along with his family members.

Somewhere in Joseph's faithful heart, he drew closer to the Lord there in jail and God's favour made him succeed - yes, even in prison.

Let's bring it up to date. Many of us feel like prisoners in our own homes. Locked down away from normal socialisation and interaction. How on earth can we succeed under such pressure?

Like Joseph, we must remember Who we are serving and Who has given dreams into our hearts. The same Lord who made Joseph succeed in the king's prison is our Lord too.

If we feel like prisoners, let's remember we are the King of kings' prisoners, not prisoners of the government restrictions. We are under HIS rule - not the rule of man.

It maybe that we've been put under this "house arrest" to get better acquainted with Jesus in our solitary times, or to interact with one person that we normally wouldn't associate with or talk to. Look out for those divine connections.

I speak to myself and say, "Be ready to share - look out for those who are down and in despair".

Our God is the God who can make you succeed - even in "prison"!