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Unlike commentaries that only enlighten our understanding
of the text, Kjell Axel Johanson's daily reflections on Ephesians
enable the reader to experience Christ in Ephesians with its
author, Paul. This is truly a life-changing book.
Kerry and Chris Shook, authors of New York Times bestseller
One Month to Live and the founders of Woodlands Church
I have known, admired and partnered in ministry with Kjell
Axel for over twenty years. His new book Rise Above Your
Chains will challenge and inspire readers for decades to come.
Bill Hybels, founder and Senior Pastor of Willow Creek Community
Church
Ephesians is one of my favorite New Testament epistles. So,
I welcome Kjell Axel’s refreshing approach to displaying the
contents of this letter, and his invitation and encouragement
to meditate daily in God's presence on these great truths.
What Kjell Axel has written is a stimulating encouragement
to encounter God, be transformed by him, and express that in
daily life as we are continually filled with his Spirit.
Mark Baily, Lead Pastor/Vicar, Trinity Church,
Cheltenham, England
ENDORSEMENTS
This is an exciting book. It is an invitation to an exciting 30-day
journey. Truth in the Word of God, confirmed in continuous
scientific findings and spiritual reality; it serves as the basis
for recalibration of our brains and, ultimately, our hearts. Over
three decades I have had the huge privilege to pray, discuss,
recalibrate and praise the LORD with Kjell Axel, my brother
and friend. I recommend this book to all who have that rest-
less longing for a deeper commitment to and experience with
God. A sense that there’s “got to be more...” Good news is:
There is! The book is a potential game — no, life-changer. Billy
Graham many times says: God will change your life, “If you
LET him…” I urge you and myself — let’s let him!
Hans Mannegren, Director of European Affairs, Billy Graham
Evangelistic Association
Kjell Axel Johanson
Kjell Axel Johanson
How Worshipping With an Imprisoned Apostle Can Change Your Thinking
v i iv i
Original Publisher: MTU Allika, EstoniaCopyright: © Kjell Axel Johanson 2013All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed in whole or part without the express written permission of the copyright holder and the US Publisher.Bible version: THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission.All rights reserved worldwide.ISBN: 978-1-941113-70-7 Blog: kjellaxel.comUS Publisher: Mountainbrook Press, 5550 Tech Center Drive, Suite 302, Colorado Springs, CO 80919
v i i
ENDORSEMENTS ............................................................................. i
PREFACE ......................................................................................... ix
INTRODUCTION ........................................................................... xvi
PARADIGM 1 .................................................................................... 1Day 1 ............................................................................................ 3Day 2 ............................................................................................ 8Day 3 .......................................................................................... 13Day 4 .......................................................................................... 19Day 5 .......................................................................................... 23Day 6 .......................................................................................... 27
A NEW PARADIGM ....................................................................... 31Day 7 .......................................................................................... 33Day 8 .......................................................................................... 38
PARADIGM 2 .................................................................................. 43Day 9 .......................................................................................... 44Day 10 ........................................................................................ 49Day 11 ......................................................................................... 54
PARADIGM 3 .................................................................................. 59Day 12 ........................................................................................ 60Day 13 ........................................................................................ 65Day 14 ........................................................................................ 69Day 15 ........................................................................................ 74Day 16 ........................................................................................ 79
CONTENTS
i xv i i i
PARADIGM 4 .................................................................................. 83Day 17 ........................................................................................ 84Day 18 ........................................................................................ 89Day 19 ........................................................................................ 93Day 20 ........................................................................................ 98Day 21 ...................................................................................... 103Day 22 ...................................................................................... 108Day 23 ...................................................................................... 113Day 24 ...................................................................................... 117Day 25 ...................................................................................... 121
PARADIGM 5 ................................................................................ 125Day 26 ...................................................................................... 126Day 27 ...................................................................................... 130Day 28 ...................................................................................... 134Day 29 ...................................................................................... 139Day 30 ...................................................................................... 143
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS .............................................................. 148
i x
“All of humanity’s problems stem from man’s inability to sit
quietly in a room alone.” Blaise Pascal
The Lord is my shepherd, I lack nothing. He makes me lie
down in green pastures, he leads me beside quiet waters, he
refreshes my soul (Psalm 23:1–3).
Have a seat. Take a few deep breaths and settle in. Clear
out a little space in your day and in your mind. What you are
holding in your hands is more than a book. It is an invitation to
a new way of being.
If you have ever met my friend, Kjell Axel (pronounced
like shell axel, with the accent on the “a”) and his lovely wife,
Vivi-Ann, you know they embody warmth, enthusiasm and
peace. They make you think, “I want some of what they have!”
Fortunately, both of them are very generous and this book evi-
dences Kjell Axel’s desire to share what he has found.
As a psychiatrist, I am thrilled by all we are learning about
the brain and its function. The recent discovery that new neu-
rons are being birthed every day is especially exciting. By stimu-
lating our minds, these new brain cells can be enlisted to create
new pathways and circuits. We can learn new skills and expand
our consciousness of life and love. And we know that individ-
ual branches of the tree-like structures of our trillions of brain
cells are continuously reinforced or pruned by our attention or
PREFACE
x
RISE ABOVE YOUR CHAINS
lack thereof. Our brains are constantly changing, and with-
out attention they lose resilience and strength over time. But
by disciplined focus, our brains can be renewed.
To this end, we have learned how meditation and
mindfulness change brain function for the better and posi-
tively impact our bodies and our health. The research proves
in tangible ways the value of what God’s word has urged us
to practice for millennia. This book incorporates these recent
advances in brain science by honoring the words of Paul in
Ephesians and by giving us concrete strategies for worship,
contemplation and prayer to get God’s perspectives deep
into our consciousness.
Learning new knowledge affects the surface of our
brains, the gray matter, where we process rational thought.
This is important, because we know rational thought can be
used positively to help us engage life with reason and inten-
tion. But rational thought alone can also be used negatively
to rationalize and justify our position. We tend to love being
right, and perhaps especially when it comes to spiritual
beliefs.
Our life with God, though, is intended to go beyond
mere knowledge. God wants our surface thinking to honor
him, but he wants to influence our deepest thought life. It
is from our hearts that evil thoughts emerge and it is in our
hearts that God chooses to dwell. He wants our hearts to be
a wellspring of life (Proverbs 4:23). He wants to change us
from the inside out.
In the beginning God put his Spirit into Adam in a very
personal way. He breathed the breath of life into Adam’s nos-
trils. From there, the divine breath travelled to lungs and
x x i
PREFACE
heart and then to body and brain. It seems appropriate that
our approach to God follow the same order of priority - heart
before head.
Yet our Western way of practicing faith tends to empha-
size changing thoughts and beliefs. This is vital, of course,
but God wants us to love him with heart and strength as
much as with mind and soul. To this end, Kjell Axel invites us
to change our way of being in God’s presence. He wants us
to dwell in him, and to learn how to let his word dwell in us.
Through meditation and singing, he helps us get our
brains and bodies in sync with the urge to praise and wor-
ship, as angels do when abiding in God’s presence. Sing-
ing involves brain structures which are completely different
from those we use for thinking or talking, and music taps
into our emotional life in a profound way. In the songbook at
the center of the Scriptures we are urged to Sing to the Lord a
new song; sing to the Lord, all the earth (Psalm 96:1).
When Jesus told his closest followers “abide in me,”
they were probably perplexed. Most of us are performance-
oriented - more comfortable with him saying, “follow me”
than we are with the call to “abide in me.” We like having
an action to take, and we take comfort in doing something
good. We like having a feeling of accomplishment and con-
trol. Being still is not easy for us.
But the story of Martha and Mary reveals that Jesus pre-
fers we sit at his feet with hearts open, ears and eyes attuned,
rather than working to make him happy. In these reflections
and meditations, you are invited to sit and attend to Jesus
with your heart and mind, and learn to still your body. The
reflections assume that if we will sit, he will prepare the feast.
x i i x i i i
RISE ABOVE YOUR CHAINS
As David said in Psalm 23, our Shepherd God makes
us lie down in green pastures, and leads us beside still
waters. Rest and restoring our souls precedes his leading
us in paths of righteousness. Doing for God flows from
being with God. As you practice these quiet reflections on
Ephesians and enter into contemplation and worship, you
will find your ability to rest in him beginning to grow. Your
capacity to be still and attune to your own heart and his
presence will expand. And you will learn to savor him even
more than you enjoy his gifts, loving his presence more than
his presents.
Research reveals we are happiest when we live fully
present in each moment. This means being open to our
senses, our feelings and our environment. It also involves
being attuned to God, to those around us and to fresh pos-
sibilities in our current state. Even in adverse circumstances,
we fare best when we remain conscious of the day at hand,
releasing to God our regret from the past and surrendering
fear of the future.
To learn this way of being, we must learn to disregard
the chatter of our thought life and focus on God’s truth. Put-
ting our bodies at rest before God each day facilitates this
transformation. Every morning in these devotions we will-
ingly place our bodies and our actions on the altar, and so
enter into a deeper sense of his presence in mind and heart.
Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of
God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice,
holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper
x i i x i i i
PREFACE
worship. Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but
be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you
will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his
good, pleasing and perfect will (Romans 12:1-3).
Meditating on God’s word in stillness allows the word
to fill our souls and permeate our being. In his presence, our
hearts are refreshed and calmed and we experience great
spiritual and physical benefits. Our blood pressure, heart
rate and breathing are positively affected and our brains and
bodies are enlivened and strengthened.
At several points, Kjell Axel references quantum
physics. Quantum theory deals with the microscopic realm
— things not seen by the naked eye. Advances in our under-
standing have opened our eyes to the nature of creation at
an atomic and subatomic level. For instance, this branch of
physics has revealed the dual particle-like and wave-like
aspects of energy and matter.
This knowledge shatters prior perspectives by failing
to conform to our desire to classify things in neat categories.
When it comes to light, it is not either/or, rather it is both/
and. It exists as wave and particle simultaneously. Not only
that, we know that a single photon of light can exist in two
locations at the same time!
This is mind-bending information. Add to that the find-
ing that when we turn our attention to one location of the
photon, it ceases to exist in the other! This dramatically dem-
onstrates that what we focus on powerfully impacts objec-
tive reality. This truth of the physical universe bears out
x i v x v
RISE ABOVE YOUR CHAINS
what Scripture has always maintained. Our point of refer-
ence impacts our choices and our results. What we focus on
becomes our reality.
This book, like quantum mechanics, addresses things
unseen. And as we open our spiritual eyes to gaze upon
unseen realities, these realities inform and override our cur-
rent consciousness. The meditations herein give tangible
help in fixing our eyes on Jesus. (Hebrews 12:2)
In the pages that follow, Kjell Axel provides structure
to support us in a disciplined form of quiet time with God.
While we often resist such structures, they are immensely
helpful in getting us beyond our current state of awareness.
Kjell Axel knows that limitation can push us to go beyond
our limits. He reminds us that Paul’s imprisonment limited
his influence in his day, but his prison writings catapulted
his influence into all the centuries that have followed. If not
for his prison limitation, the letter of Ephesians would likely
never have been written.
Whatever is limiting you in your life today, the apostle
Paul asks you to consider that the realities of your life in God
are far more important and compelling than your physical
circumstances. What is true is surely important, but the truth
is far more important. Like Abraham our father, we can face
difficult facts, yet make faith our focus.
Against all hope, Abraham in hope believed and so became
the father of many nations, just as it had been said to
him, “So shall your offspring be.” Without weakening
in his faith, he faced the fact that his body was as good
as dead— since he was about a hundred years old—and
x i v x v
PREFACE
that Sarah’s womb was also dead. Yet he did not waver
through unbelief regarding the promise of God, but was
strengthened in his faith and gave glory to God, being
fully persuaded that God had power to do what he had
promised (Romans 4:18-21).
A strong faith focus dramatically changes our attitude,
our identity, and our capacity to live the abundant life that
Jesus promises. I am confident these reflections on Ephesians
will give you an inspirational focus on the one who refreshes
and restores.
So sit down, settle in and take a few deep breaths. Open
your mind and heart. The daily practice of these meditations
will transform your view of God, his pleasure and his plan!
Paul Looney MD
Pastor of Counseling
Woodlands Church, Texas
x v i x v i i
God wants to change our minds. He wants us to know
deeply and believe fully that he desires to bless us. It is his
will, and so he works in everything to bless believers in Jesus
Christ. The first generation of Christian leaders believed this,
and they were ready to take on any task or meet any opposi-
tion knowing that even if it looked like trouble, God would
turn it into a blessing in the long run.
Letting God change our minds is radically different
from us trying to lift ourselves by our bootstraps. He does
it by gently replacing old, less helpful thought patterns with
new, good and creative ones that only he can give. God is the
creator of the universe. He is holiness, power, wisdom and
love. He not only has those attributes, he embodies them.
They describe his essence. It makes sense to let ourselves be
influenced by him.
None of us, from our limited point of view, can figure
out how God sees us and what he wants for our lives. Only
he can tell us that. That is why we must meditate on his
words. As far as the heavens are above the Earth... gives an indi-
cation of the degree of difference between our thoughts and
his. That is why it is so important to reflect on the word
of God.
This book invites us to take thirty days to listen to
what God says about himself, how he looks at us and what
INTRODUCTION
x v i x v i i
INTRODUCTION
long-term plans he has for us. If we let God’s words do their
work, our lives will be changed. Whether you are a believer
or not, reading God’s word is one way to open your heart
and mind to the work of the Holy Spirit.
Over the next thirty days, decide to spend a few min-
utes each day, responding in faith to these reflections, and
worshipping, also for just a few minutes a day, with bibli-
cally-based worship.
You will do well to promise yourself to do this faith-
fully for a full month. You need not promise yourself that
you are now going to be changed, and don’t beat yourself
up if you miss a day or two. Just go back to where you were
and go on, trusting God’s promise that he will do what
he says.
With that in mind, it is vitally important to do the read-
ing, reflecting and worshipping regularly. God has created
us so that good, faithful practices can change our bodies and
our brains. Like strength training for our muscles, meditation
strengthens pathways of faith and faithfulness in our minds.
This is reflected in the saying “Neurons that fire together,
wire together.”
When we have thought patterns that are less than
constructive, they lock us into old ways of thinking and
behaving. They function as beliefs that affect us and the
world around us. In a very powerful way our deep beliefs
determine our experience. As a man thinks in his heart, so is he
(Proverbs 23:7).
As we let God into our brain, and let go of our own need
to be right and to control everything, a miraculous change
occurs. We invite you to try it.
x v i i i x i x
RISE ABOVE YOUR CHAINS
To derive maximum benefit, do the thirty days now,
then wait a few weeks and do them again. Repeat this once
or twice a year for the next few years.
The minimalistic style, with few illustrations, is meant
to make it easy to read over and over again. There will be
some intentional repetition of thoughts in the thirty chapters
because we attempt to follow the flow of thoughts in Paul’s
epistle.
We have chosen to follow the New International
Version of the Bible.
For the theologically inclined:
I believe that Paul is the author of Ephesians, and
the whole of my argument is based on that acceptance (Cf.
Herald Hoehner, N .T. Wright, Peter S. Williamson and
Marcus Barth).
The old debate between Arminianism and Calvinism
has been made obsolete by the epistemology that came as a
result of quantum thinking. To think like that is not irratio-
nal, but fully rational in a context where we are fully depen-
dent on revelation. God, who is beyond space and time, can
do whatever he pleases, which he always does in a way that
agrees with his character. God can plan to bless us the way
he does, in a way that still allows for personal responsibility.
How he does that is beyond our ability to understand. We
simply trust in what he says in the sacred Scriptures and then
look at salvation history which shows that he always keeps
his promises. That is surely good news.
The suggestions for worship are all taken from the Bible.
We are free to worship God in any way that is historically
x v i i i x i x
INTRODUCTION
Christian and appropriate, but in this book only biblical texts
are used, due to the belief that we are actually in the process
of letting the biblical texts rewire our brain.
English is not my first language, so it is with fear and
trembling that I let this book be published. The ideas pre-
sented in it are so compelling and give me so much joy that I
am willing to take this little step of faith.
God the Father chose you, in eternity, before creation, to the praise of his glorious grace.
PARADIGM1
1
DAY
Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with
every spiritual blessing in Christ (Ephesians 1:3).
Today we will see that Paul wrote
the phenomenally uplifting book of
Ephesians while he was a chained
prisoner; we will discover that the
early Christians saw their difficulties
as an opportunity to point to God’s
long-term love and faithfulness.
DAY1
3
4
RISE ABOVE YOUR CHAINS
There is so much faith and worship expressed in Ephe-
sians. The letter is far more a call to worship and trust than
the theology lesson that we tend to make it. Its worship is
so intense that it does for our usual inbox thinking what
quantum mechanics does for our common sense of physics.
Anyone who thinks he can understand this in a Western sec-
ular sense has not understood what Paul is talking about –
which actually might be true for most of us!
God the Father has invited us to participate in a life
so grand, so connected to his inscrutable eternal purpose of
blessing and joy, that it will take new levels of faith, trust, com-
mitment and personal growth to live in that new paradigm.
The apostle Paul gives us an example of how we can live this
kind of life. He is writing under circumstances that most of
us would regard as unbearable and severely depressing.
Paul probably wrote the letter from Rome where he was
imprisoned, chained and under the watchful eye of a soldier.
That must have been a humiliating situation for a man who
had been trained by one of the most renowned theologians of
the time, had travelled the world, seen people healed, planted
churches and been a major decision-maker in the budding
church movement. How could he overcome the reality of his
circumstances? What sort of thought pattern had prepared
him for this challenge, which made him a history changer
and not just a prisoner of conscience?
And remember, this was not the only time he was
chained. He was kept in Caesarea for two years, was beaten
and put in stocks together with Silas in Philippi; he even
writes about fighting wild beasts in Ephesus. It seems he got
into trouble because of the Gospel in one place after another.
4 5
Day ONE
Think about this description of the apostolic life:
We put no stumbling block in anyone’s path, so that
our ministry will not be discredited. Rather, as servants
of God we commend ourselves in every way: in great
endurance; in troubles, hardships and distresses; in beat-
ings, imprisonments and riots; in hard work, sleepless
nights and hunger; in purity, understanding, patience
and kindness; in the Holy Spirit and in sincere love; in
truthful speech and in the power of God; with weapons of
righteousness in the right hand and in the left; through
glory and dishonor, bad report and good report; genu-
ine, yet regarded as impostors; known, yet regarded as
unknown; dying, and yet we live on; beaten, and yet not
killed; sorrowful, yet always rejoicing; poor, yet making
many rich; having nothing, and yet possessing every-
thing (2 Corinthians 6:3–10).
I have worked much harder, been in prison more fre-
quently, been flogged more severely, and been exposed
to death again and again. Five times I received from the
Jews the forty lashes minus one. Three times I was beaten
with rods, once I was pelted with stones, three times I
was shipwrecked, I spent a night and a day in the open
sea, I have been constantly on the move. I have been in
danger from rivers, in danger from bandits, in danger
from my fellow Jews, in danger from Gentiles; in danger
in the city, in danger in the country, in danger at sea; and
in danger from false believers. I have labored and toiled
and have often gone without sleep; I have known hunger
and thirst and have often gone without food; I have been
6
RISE ABOVE YOUR CHAINS
cold and naked. Besides everything else, I face daily the
pressure of my concern for all the churches. Who is weak,
and I do not feel weak? Who is led into sin, and I do not
inwardly burn? If I must boast, I will boast of the things
that show my weakness. The God and Father of the Lord
Jesus, who is to be praised forever, knows that I am not
lying. In Damascus the governor under King Aretas had
the city of the Damascenes guarded in order to arrest me.
But I was lowered in a basket from a window in the wall
and slipped through his hands (2 Corinthians 11:23–33).
As an addition to these problems, the church in Colos-
sae had been infiltrated by non-Christian teachings that
threatened the very existence of that church. Some preachers
also used Paul’s imprisonment as an opportunity to maneu-
ver their way to prominence, and then there was infighting
between prominent believers.
All this would be more than enough to discourage most
of us to think that we made a mistake when we decided to
follow Christ, that prayer does not work and that others
don’t like us very much. The temptation to misread difficult
circumstances as if something is fundamentally wrong with
us lurks just under our sensitive skin.
We see alternative ways of dealing with tough circum-
stances among the early Christian leaders. Whether it was
Peter, John or Paul, it seems that the more Satan tried to stop
them, get them into prison, onto lonely islands or even get
them executed, the more they experienced God’s presence,
and the more influential they became. Paul wrote Ephe-
sians from prison, John received the content of Revelation on
6 7
Day ONE
Patmos and Peter was even more emboldened to preach and
lead after being flogged and ordered to quit by the Sanhedrin.
These people had one thing in common: they believed
that God loved them, that he has absolute power and that
he would bring about his promises in their lives, regardless
of how impossible the present situation looked. They were
therefore able to earnestly praise God and act in ways that
strengthened their faith.
ReflectionJust before Jesus went to Gethsemane to be arrested and
later crucified, he and his disciples sang the hymn for the
day, which may have been Psalm 118, which begins with
proclaiming:
Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good; his love endures
forever.
Would you right now join with believers from all ages in
praying or singing that for five minutes?
8
DAY
Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ… (Eph 1:3).
On this day we will see that Paul’s
life was based on his faith in God’s
ability to accomplish his plan to bless
him, and make him a blessing, even
if he himself would die prematurely
in the process.
DAY2
8
8 9
Day TWO
These first words set the tone of the letter, and they are
also the backdrop to Paul’s entire life and teaching. Not that
he always understood what was going on. He tells us about
the persecution and harassment he met, and on one occasion
he asked God to take away what he called a thorn in the flesh.
No wonder! Scholars discuss what that thorn could be, but
for us it is enough to know that sometimes there were dif-
ficulties that Paul found overwhelming, and that those dif-
ficulties did not always go away, not even as a response to
his most fervent prayers. The only answer Paul got was that
God’s grace, which is his presence, power, guidance, joy and
assurance of being a blessing, was enough for his situation.
Paul needed to discover how real that promise was, and it
formed his life for the better.
Sometimes we feel rejected by God and despondent
when we sense things going awry. To make matters worse,
the devil always seems to turn up at the wrong time to tell
us that we have messed up so badly that all is lost. That hap-
pens to all of us, and we need to be ready when it happens,
because it surely will. One way of preparation is to train our-
selves to distinguish between what are false brain messages
and what is the truth about us and our situation.
False brain messages are lies about God, yourself and
your situation that your brain sends to you. They are usu-
ally formed by experiences we have had that unfortunately
came with faulty explanations from parents, friends, our own
limited thinking ability, or the devil. The world we live in is
supra-complex. We are influenced by physical, spiritual, psy-
chological and many other factors. We try to understand why
we have some good days and some horrible periods, but we
1 0
RISE ABOVE YOUR CHAINS
don’t always succeed – because we live in a fallen, dysfunc-
tional world.
When we listen to the lies planted in our brain, we may
be tempted to fall into naiveté, anger, doubt, cynicism or
despair. The alternative is faith in the goodness, fairness and
power of God. Only God sees beyond our present circum-
stances and has the power to execute his plans in this com-
plex world. But we need to discover how consistent God is
in the way he does this for us, and why he is worthy of our
full trust.
Paul discovered that reality. He found out about it by
listening to the revelation of God which has been given us
in the Bible, by committing himself to living in sync with
what God has said and then by actively worshipping God
at all times, good or bad. In this letter to the Ephesians, Paul
urges believers, who were also living through tough times, to
do exactly what he himself was doing. He expended a good
amount of ink and time to share with us his timeless truths
about who God is. We will listen to, and digest his teach-
ing for the next few weeks in order to synchronize our own
thinking with God’s thoughts as revealed to us in the Bible.
Did Paul’s commitment to trust the Word of God work for
him? You bet it did! And it will work for us too.
When Paul praises/blesses God, he expresses his heart-
felt thankfulness for all the benefits he has received because
of Jesus Christ. He chooses to express his dedication to objec-
tive reality instead of succumbing to reactive sentiments. He
no longer saw himself as a victim of circumstance. Yes, he
was in chains under house arrest, but that was a temporary
persecution that would not hinder God from accomplishing
1 0 11
Day TWODay TWO
his purposes and bestowing his blessings on Paul. God had
not sent Paul to prison – that was done by the Roman author-
ities. But God, who is to be blessed because he blesses, would
turn Paul’s problems into opportunities. Here’s how Paul
looks upon it:
Now I want you to know, brothers and sisters, that what
has happened to me has actually served to advance the
Gospel. As a result, it has become clear throughout the
whole palace guard and to everyone else that I am in
chains for Christ. And because of my chains, most of the
brothers and sisters have become confident in the Lord
and dare all the more to proclaim the Gospel without fear
(Philippians 1:12-14).
This is a Christian way of interpreting life’s tougher
circumstances. It is based on the conviction that even
though we live in a fallen, dysfunctional world and might
suffer much because of that, we know that God is good, and
that God has full control. We know God will turn our dif-
ficulties into opportunities as we trust in him. This is not
merely positive thinking — changes do not occur as a result
of our own upbeat attitude. Neither is it an endorsement
for the power of negative thinking. In fact, it has very little
to do with our abilities. Paul’s life was based on his faith in
God’s ability to accomplish his plan to bless Paul and make
him a blessing, even if Paul himself would die prematurely
in the process.
We surely have a lot to learn from the apostle Paul.
Please stick with us for the next few weeks to follow the
process.
1 2
RISE ABOVE YOUR CHAINS
ReflectionFor five minutes, join with Paul in praising God the way he
teaches us by praying or singing (if you sing, you can make
your own simple melody):
Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good; his love endures
forever.
