When God Arrests and Imprisons

Daily Devotional – Friday, March 5, 2021

And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose.

Romans 8:28 (NKJV)

I will never forget November and December 2020. For the first time in my life, I was hospitalized and confined to an isolation ward. I had contracted the dreaded COVID-19.

The worst aspect of the disease was breathing complications. By God’s grace, I could breathe without assistance by the fifth day. However, painful injections and sleepless nights made life almost unbearable.

I thank God, however, for four other gentlemen I met at the isolation unit. Every day, we would go out of our rooms to exercise and bask in the sunshine. We spent time discussing our families, work-life balance, religion, politics, and the COVID-19 experience.

We may have disagreed on some issues, but one subject was not debatable: God had good intentions in allowing us to contract the disease and to be confined. It emerged that all of us had been overworking at the expense of other important aspects of life.

Perhaps God had noted that we had forgotten our purpose on earth. He was now redirecting us to the right path.  While confined, most of us read the Bible and prayed more than before. We also communicated more with our families and friends (albeit through mobile phones).

We agreed that the short life we had on earth needed to be spent with God and our families and in worthwhile and elevating pursuits.  Had we not been ‘arrested’ and ‘imprisoned’ by COVID-19, perhaps we would have missed these significant lessons.

This experience taught me that. “All things work together for good to those who love God.” (Romans 8:28). Both good and bad experiences are God’s training schools to make us better human beings. For me, negative experiences are more educational than positive ones.

Dear child of God, there are many events and circumstances in your life that you may never understand. You need to trust God that whatever He allows you to go through will eventually be of benefit to you because you are “called according to His purpose.”

Prayer

Father, thank you because every experience, good or bad, is meant for my benefit.