If you’re like me, and most of the world right now, you are spending another day in “lockdown.” For me that means another day of being a homeschool dad as I homeschool my kids (words I never thought I would say), figuring out what the menu is going to look like for not just me (a shake sometime around 1pm and a dinner at 6 was my usual) but three actual meals are my new normal with a full house (I have never cooked this much in my life), trying to make a face mask with rubber bands and a napkin and trying to ration my “triple ply” by separating them into “single-ply” because panic is in the air.
Life in quarantine can have us feeling like Tom Hanks on Castaway: trapped, cut off from the rest of the world with a volleyball called Wilson with you and I resorting to confiding in our last roll of toilet paper named, “Charmin.” But the reality is you are more free than you think. You are more alive than you realize. Just because you are supposed to stay behind the four walls of your home doesn’t mean your significance in God is supposed to be.
One of the most comforting verses written in the Bible is found in the book of Philippians which reads this way,
“6 Don’t be pulled in different directions or worried about a thing. Be saturated in prayer throughout each day, offering your faith-filled requests before God with overflowing gratitude. Tell him every detail of your life, 7 then God’s wonderful peace that transcends human understanding, will make the answers known to you through Jesus Christ. 8 So keep your thoughts continually fixed on all that is authentic and real, honorable and admirable, beautiful and respectful, pure and holy, merciful and kind. And fasten your thoughts on every glorious work of God,[i] praising him always.” Philippians 4:6-8
One of the shortest verses yet most well-known verses in the Bible is found from the same book in Chapter 1 which is simply,
“to live is christ and to die is gain.” Philippians 1:21
While these verses are familiar and bring comfort during this time, their context has a greater meaning than you would think. They were written while Paul was in prison in Rome. Paul was imprisoned a lot, actually. His New Testament letters are said to have been written from prison which were: Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, 2 Timothy, and Philemon. All of these are attributed to Paul; they are sometimes called the “captivity letters” because being in jail became a new normal for him. I get the pressure of my new normal. I feel the intensity of my own version of captivity. But while Paul was imprisoned, he wrote those words to the Philippians to encourage the church and all who would read it. His words are meant to inspire the church while Paul was in “lockdown.” Confined behind his own four walls, Paul realized that what God had called him to could not be contained, locked down or chained up. His praise, his prayers and his purpose would not be confined and restrained but would be free for God to move in him and through him…despite his current restrictions.
Being in a Roman prison was not easy. But God actually used Paul’s imprisonment to help advance the Good News of Jesus and build the church. His life in the present and in the future was defined by the life and love of Jesus. And your “imprisonment” doesn’t mean God can’t use you. We are all feeling the “stir craziness” of what it means to be “stuck inside.” But what if you saw this as an opportunity for God to use you to reveal the life of Jesus to others just like Paul did?
Here’s what I know and what you need to know: God can’t be confined which means neither can you! While we follow the guidelines of the professionals and the lawmakers, we can accomplish a lot for the Kingdom of God right from our own living rooms, bedrooms and even bathrooms (sorry, too much information - but to say I haven’t read the Bible and prayed from my bathroom when that is the only place to find sanity sometimes wouldn’t be true - I find it to be a nice retreat throughout the day). Your praise, your prayers and your purpose isn’t imprisoned. As a matter of fact, it’s free to bless, bring and build the Kingdom of God just like Paul did.
God can’t be quarantined and neither can you. As you are living through your own personal “lockdown,” here are 3 important reminders to keep you inspired:
One: Your Praise Can’t Be Quarantined: Let God turn your “prison sentence” into a “praise session”
I love the book of Philippians. It’s one of the first places that we see Paul face imprisonment and how he responds is one of the lessons we can learn while we are facing our own time of being under “lock and key.” Paul and Silas were on their second missionary journey and when they came to Philippi. Paul and Silas shut down a demonic fortune-teller which provided a lot of money for the city and the result of their mission to share the good news of “King Jesus” was met with strong opposition. Paul and Silas found themselves beaten for their ministry and message resulting in a prison sentence. See below:
“22 The crowd joined in the attack against Paul and Silas, and the magistrates ordered them to be stripped and beaten with rods. 23 After they had been severely flogged, they were thrown into prison, and the jailer was commanded to guard them carefully. 24 When he received these orders, he put them in the inner cell and fastened their feet in the stocks.” Acts 16: 22-24
As mentioned earlier, a Roman prison is not picnic. Prison conditions in ancient prisons were often harsh. Most prisoners wore chains; their feet might be shackled and their hands attached to their neck by another chain. The very word “chains” became a synonym for imprisonment. Someprisoners were also kept in wooden stocks, devices to restrain the feet, hands, or even the neck of an individual which is clearly what Paul and Silas were in (see Acts 16:24). Prisons were often very dark (see Isa. 42:7); the inner area of the prison mentioned in Acts 16:24 was probably without windows. Although solitary confinement was known, prisoners generally were kept grouped together, accused and condemned, men and women alike. Overcrowding was not infrequent (Isa. 24:22). Prisons often had poor air circulation, a lack of hygienic facilities, rats and vermin and food of poor quality. Even “shady guards” might at times use the withholding of food or even use outright torture to extort money from prisoners or their relatives.
Being a Christian in Phillipi was not easy either. Philippi was a hotbed of Roman patriotism. The city of Philippi was filled with ex-Roman soldiers known for it’s patriotic nationalism as a Roman colony in ancient Macedonia. So when you build a church in an area that is highly resistant to any other king other than caesar, you will face some pushback. Because when caesar is called “lord and savior” of the world (literally according to history) as Paul is declaring Jesus is “Lord and Savior” of the world, the passion for Rome rose up. It manifested in such a way that caused not only Paul and Silas to face persecution but also the planted Philippian church to face continued persecution as well as it grew during the years after Paul and Silas left.
Yet while Paul was forced to stay behind four walls, his worship wasn’t. His response to go from being “free to share Jesus” to being constrained wasn’t met with frustration and fear but with something very different. Almost strange actually. Pauls response was praise and worship! You can read about it below:
25 About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the other prisoners were listening to them. 26 Suddenly there was such a violent earthquake that the foundations of the prison were shaken. At once all the prison doors flew open, and everyone’s chains came loose.” Acts 16:25-26
I think there is something powerful in this text and I think it’s this: your circumstances can’t stop you from taking “worship stances.” In other words, your praise is more powerful than you think. Despite what you see around your and what you’re going through, our first response could be and should be worship. Your “shelter in place” orders means that God becomes “your place of shelter,'“
“He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High will rest in the shadow of the Almighty.” Psalm 91:1
Don’t panic. Find peace. Find rest. Instead of “panicking your way through” this pandemic what if you “praised your way through” it. Because when you sing to God, your situation goes from “prison sentence” to “praise session.” And not only that, but the miraculous power of your praise and worship to God NOW does what Paul and Silas experienced THEN: the doors blow open and the chains come off. The more you praise and worship , the sooner your doors will open up again..and our quarantine will end! We are not confined to this forever. And I am just crazy enough to believe that if we choose to live from “unprecedented praise and worship” we will see this “unprecedented event” come to a beautiful end. The doors of our homes will open up and our “stay at home” order will become our “go make disciples” mission again.
And not only will the doors of our homes open, but the doors the local businesses, schools, government buildings and the church doors will open! There will be a day when we will go back to normal. And that normal will be most familiar to us when we can walk through the doors of our church again. God hasn’t called you to give up but to lift up your hands and your heads to the God who is the same yesterday, today and forever (Hebrews 13:8).
God is the same before this pandemic as He will be after. Or in other words, He is the same God on “both sides” of this outbreak. There is a song that reminds me of this truth. And it speaks to God’s limitless, boundless and “quarantine-less” strength of His authority. The song is called, “Both Sides” and the lyrics are as follows:
“No stone no grave
Can hold back Your power
No lie no chain
Can hold down Your love
Every knee will bow
And everyone will know
You’re King on both sides
Of the stone”
God’s authority has no limits. God’s strength was just as strong before Jesus death and after Jesus death. God’s authority was just as powerful before the resurrection and after the resurrection. God is just as sovereign and strong before this quarantine as He will be after this quarantine. While we may experience some permanent changes during this pandemic, God hasn’t changed. He’s just as loving, caring and merciful before this pandemic as He will be long after it. He’s King on both sides of the stone … and of the quarantine! God’s power doesn’t have a “stay at home order.” Paul knew it. And now you know it. Your worship shifts atmospheres. So sing like you are free and prepare for your chains to come off and your doors to open again!
TWO: Your Prayers Can’t Be Quarantined: What if your “stay-at-home order” becomes your “stand and pray” order?
When we look around, many of us only see the four walls we are surrounded by. When we look up, we see our ceilings and we are subtly duped into thinking that maybe that is as high as our prayer go. But that couldn’t be further from the truth. Your prayers are not hitting the ceiling. Quite the opposite! Just as God told Abraham to get out from under his 8-foot restriction and look up to see “his future,” God is calling you to walk over to a window, look up at the heavens and realize, God is bigger than you think.
You find yourself confined to the four walls of your prayer closet, restricted to your house and bound by our government order to stay home. But your prayers are unlimited, immeasurable, unrestricted and unfettered to move heaven and earth as a follower of Jesus. Here’s what the Bible says about your unrestrained prayers:
1 Corinthians 2:9. "But, as it is written, 'What no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man imagined, what God has prepared for those who love him'—"
Isaiah 55:9. "For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts."
Ephesians 1:18-19. "I ask that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened, so that you may know the hope of His calling, the riches of His glorious inheritance in the saints, and the surpassing greatness of His power to us who believe. He displayed this power in the working of His mighty strength."
Colossians 1:17. "And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together."
Job 36:22-24. "God's power is unlimited. He needs no teachers to guide or correct him. Others have praised God for what he has done, so join with them."
Ephesians 3:19. "May you experience the love of Christ, though it is too great to understand fully. Then you will be made complete with all the fullness of life and power that comes from God."
It doesn’t matter what you are surrounded by when you are surrounded by God. Daniel knew that best. Daniel had a profound way of praying while in captivity and watching heaven move. He was so connected to heaven through prayer that an angel visited him and revealed to him that when he prayed, “heaven hustled” and came in response (Daniel 10:10-14). Daniel knew the power of prayer during his own “captivity” and that didn’t stop him from seeking God. Daniel had a profound understanding that when we are confined, God isn’t. God is the opposite. He’s omniscient, omnipresent and omnipotent. Those are big words to say that God can go where He wants, sees what He wants and does what He wants. God can’t be quarantined. And when we have to be, we are reminded that God doesn’t want to be.
Daniel was facing his own political restrictions and with a “death sentence” in the air. And what did he do? He confined himself to his room and prayed 3 times a day. Unfortunately it didn’t get better but got worse. His surrounding went from bedroom to cave. And when it got worse, Daniel discovered that heaven came to his rescue. Daniel didn’t see his captivity and his prison sentence as a distraction from God or as distance from God. No. He saw it as an opportunity to draw near to God. Whether he was shut up in his bedroom or sentenced to “death by cave” and surrounded by lions, he knew God was free to live and move and act according to His will because “in Him we live and move and have our being” (Acts 17:28). See the story below:
“Now when Daniel learned that the decree had been published, he went home to his upstairs room where the windows opened toward Jerusalem. Three times a day he got down on his knees and prayed, giving thanks to his God, just as he had done before….”
“So the king gave the order, and they brought Daniel and threw him into the lions’ den. The king said to Daniel, “May your God, whom you serve continually, rescue you!” A stone was brought and placed over the mouth of the den, and the king sealed it with his own signet ring and with the rings of his nobles, so that Daniel’s situation might not be changed. Then the king returned to his palace and spent the night without eating and without any entertainment being brought to him. And he could not sleep. At the first light of dawn, the king got up and hurried to the lions’ den. When he came near the den, he called to Daniel in an anguished voice, “Daniel, servant of the living God, has your God, whom you serve continually, been able to rescue you from the lions?” Daniel answered, “May the king live forever! My God sent his angel, and he shut the mouths of the lions. They have not hurt me, because I was found innocent in his sight. Nor have I ever done any wrong before you, Your Majesty.” - Daniel 6:10-22
Daniel survived because his prayers thrived. His prison sentence was an an answer to prayer. His calamity became a testimony. What if your “stay-at-home order” became your “stand and pray order?” God wants your “place of confinement” to become your “prayer closet” so you can see angels battle, lions become docile, decrees end and nations saved.
Paul wrote one his most famous verses about prayer while under constraint. While confined to his prison sentence, he knew the power of what prayer can do. He was restrained, but his words would not be. While he didn’t know what the future would look like, whether he would survive or whether he would see his family and friends again, he understood something all of us can’t forget. He knew that worry, anxiety and fear moves the kingdom of darkness but faith, trust and hope moves the kingdom of God. He says it so eloquently below:
“Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done. Then you will experience God’s peace, which exceeds anything we can understand. His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus.” - Philippians 4:6-7
Paul couldn’t do anything but pray. Because he knew when we aren’t free, God is. When we can’t go, He can. What we can’t see, He already has. What we can’t understand, He already does. When we need help, He’s always there.
THREE: Your Purpose Can’t Be Quarantined: What if your “social distancing” becomes your time of “determined discovering?”
What I mean by this is this: your purpose isn’t in lockdown or cut off from God like we are right now. As a matter of fact, it’s quite the opposite. Your purpose is just as significant as it was before this pandemic and it will be equally as important after! But let’s even take it a step further: what if your purpose was “white hot” right now to be used by God to change the future!>
Consider the young man named Isaac. A university student in London who found himself in the middle of an outbreak. It started with the words painted in red on the door that read, “Lord have mercy.” While that would have been a phrase understood many times before, this one had a different tone to it. It was different because Goodwoman Phillips was found dead on Christmas Eve in the run-down district of St. Giles-in-the-Fields. Phillips had died of bubonic plague. While only a few other deaths were reported over the next few months, the numbers began to climb and when summer arrived, death was everywhere. Over a period of 18 months, the Great Plague of London, as the epidemic came to be called, would claim more than 100,000 lives – roughly a quarter of the city’s population. And what was the cities response: social distancing.
Social distancing was also the response of many of the institutions and that time. One of the universities’ that closed for the duration was Cambridge University. And among the students who headed home for what today we would call self-quarantining was our 23-year-old mathematics student, Isaac, that you may know better as Isaac Newton. For the next year and a half, Newton remained at his family’s farm in Lincolnshire, reading, studying, and thinking alone. While the bubonic pandemic raged elsewhere, Newton embarked on what he would later describe as the most intellectually productive period of his life – inventing an entirely new mathematical discipline…calculus. And without calculus we wouldn’t have modern mathematics, engineering, and statistics would be impossible. Isaac discovered his purpose and some of the greatest discoveries during his two-year time of being quarantined.
Just like God used Isaac’s time of isolation to reveal his greater purpose, God is also doing that in you. I know this because God often used isolation to prepare leaders for greater assignment. Joseph was sold into slavery and later accused of a crime he did not do which landed him in prison. God used over 13 years of preparation for what would be an 81-year assignment as second in command of Egypt. King David was forced to flee Saul, who was trying to kill him. He ended up in the Cave of Adullam as his hiding place. During his time in the cave he wrote three of the Psalms — Psalm 34, 57, and 142. The down and outs joined him in the cave. They became known as David’s Mighty Men. John, one of Jesus disciples, was sentenced to the Island of Patmos. It was in his time of isolation here that he received the vision for the book of Revelation that we read in the Bible today. He did not die on this island, but God used his time of “being on an island” to download an important part of the Bible for God’s people.
The “Prison Epistles” generally refer to four letters written by the Apostle Paul while he was under house arrest in Rome. Each letter — Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, and Philemon — is addressed to a specific church or, in the case of Philemon, an individual, and while Paul penned each epistle to address specific needs of first-century Christians and the church (also letters to Timothy need to be mentioned as I did earlier). Most of Paul’s writings were written over a span of 15 years. In AD 60, he arrived in Rome and was imprisoned later that year. For the next two years, Paul would live under house arrest in Rome (see Acts 28:30-31). But that didn’t stop him from inspiring those around him! During this time, he continued to minister to those who visited and encourage local churches via letters he wrote from prison and it was in prison that Paul wrote some of his famous letters that hold some of God’s most treasured truths:
“For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God-not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.” - Ephesians 2:8-9
“Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for human masters, since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord Christ you are serving.” - Colossians 3:23-24
“But whatever were gains to me I now consider loss for the sake of Christ.” - Philippians 3:7
“Be very careful, then, how you live—not as unwise but as wise, making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil. Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the Lord’s will is.” - Ephesians 5:15-17
“Being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion” - Philippians 1:6
In many of his letters, Paul often referred to himself as a “prisoner of Christ” (Ephesians 3:1, Philemon 1:1, etc), a position he willingly embraced. Even while imprisoned, Paul still carried the authority of Jesus Christ and ministered to those he was called to. Whether in person or via letter, Paul’s ministry was purposeful and profound, and his writings are just an impactful and instructional for the global church today.
Stop seeing this as a “prison sentence” and start seeing it as an opportunity for God to unveil and discover your purpose, your creativity and your design. For such a time as this you were made to be the teacher, the entrepreneur, the developer, the discipler, the instructor, the giver, the mother or the father so that you can release the God-given inspiration inside of you! What inspirational ideas, visions and dreams is God wanting you to accomplish during this season? Your purpose isn’t quarantined, so reach for the sky and dream big!