Welcome back to Beliefnet’s exclusive Bill Hybels devotional, “Living with Grander Vision.” This feed will appear in your profile every day for three full weeks. Did you miss any entries? Just stay subscribed, and the feed will begin again at the end of its cycle.
CHARGES HAD BEEN brought against him, though none of them were true. He was being called a troublemaker, the apostle Paul was, a rebellious ringleader who insisted on stirring up riots. For more than two years, he sat in a prison cell unjustly. Two years. More than seven hundred days. Surely he wondered, Will I ever get out of here?
When called to stand trial, having no idea if two years would then turn to twenty, Paul trumpeted hope, recounted his conversion–telling of the light he’d found that was brighter than the noonday sun (Acts 22:6)–and beckoned even the king to come to faith in God. “I wish for you not my chains,” Paul said essentially, “but my change.” (Acts 26:29)
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What situations of your own are you “waiting to get out of” before you’ll trumpet hope to those around you? Who might benefit from hearing your faith story today, especially if told from the seat of tough circumstances?