Philippians 1:12 I want you to know, brothers, that what has happened to me has really served to advance the gospel, 13 so that it has become known throughout the whole imperial guard and to all the rest that my imprisonment is for Christ. 14 And most of the brothers, having become confident in the Lord by my imprisonment, are much more bold to speak the word without fear.
As we saw yesterday, Paul wanted to speak encouragement into the lives of this church. As we will see, one of the major themes in this letter is joy. Being in prison could very well be viewed as a "joy-killer." Paul wants to make sure that this is far from the truth. Being in prison for the name of Christ had actually had positive effects in the spread of the Gospel: Paul had a "captive audience" with all those soldiers who had to guard him, and the fellow believers in Rome were challenged and encouraged by Paul's boldness. Paul was not trying to recruit fellow believers to join Him in prison, but he was challenging them to view any situation for the potential of what God is doing to bring people to himself. God is able to use any and every situation to accomplish His plan, even if they seem overwhelmingly negative. With those situations God will bring us people who either need to be introduced to Christ or encouraged in their walk with Him. Paul continue this thought in the next chapter, but for now, consider who God has brought into your life because of something deemed negative. Has someone encouraged you or been encouraged by you? Are there unbelieving medical staff, financial officers, court officials, or people in crisis God wanted you to encounter? Has he brought blessing from something we have viewed as a curse?
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