Your Designer Prison

( Pages 76 - 90)

I was in jail. In the mid 1990s, as I sat in the cold, colorless cell in the Norfolk City jail, I tried to imagine how I was going to feel spending time there. Thankfully, I was only in there a couple hours-- to preach. My wife and I had moved to Norfolk in 1990 to establish Calvary Revival Church; during our early years, we started the prison ministry, Jonah. While sitting and thinking in that cell, I realized that God was utilizing each prisoner’s jail experience. In other words, for each person there, God had a “designer prison” – one that would work for their good. In a sense, God is crafting our lives the same way. Even in the midst of your circumstances, “God is preserving you, fixing you, building you, and using your limitations to prepare you for the coming phases of your journey” (McBath, p. 76).


Mile Marker: Can you identify a few of the ways God may be making your limitations serve as a “designer prison” in your life? Can you identify some of the ways God is reaching out to you, using your losses and issues to build your friendship with him?


Remembering The Words of a Friend:
And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose. - Romans 8:28