Ephesians 3:1
“For this reason I, Paul, the prisoner of Christ Jesus for the sake of you Gentiles”.
Paul was a prisoner for the latter portion of his life. From a human perspective it seems unfortunate. Something that could make one bitter. Basically he would preach in a town and some of the jews opposed to his message would stir things up for him. This happened again and the authorities arrested him. His enemies were happy as he was no longer free to preach. Paul may have been sad on occasion.
However, his time in jail gave him time to write letters to the churches he started. In time these became scripture. One third of the New Testament was written by Paul. This is a great treasure. Particularly the book of Romans. While justification by faith was in the bible, it was clarified wonderfully here. God's grace and what Jesus' sacrifice purchased was an incredible gift. God used Paul as a prisoner to clearly write this treatise on grace. Mankind is very blessed for this.
We will have unfortunate times and conditions in our lives. Times that could make us bitter, if we chose to think of them in that way. Many without faith would see these times as negatives. However, just like Paul, God uses these times for good. Romans 8;28 says, "And we know that God works all things together for the good of those who love Him, who are called according to His purpose."
This is a great miracle. He can take negatives and rework things to be positive. These would take too much planing and agreement with others to align all to be positive. However, God does this effortlessly. In the end it brings God glory. We also benefit. We may have learned a great lesson, different relationships or maybe deeper ones result. We are promised fulness of joy in the midst and afterwards. Some times healing results, some times not. The net result is an elevation.
He will use our circumstance to bring others to Him. Due to the joy in the struggle, this miracle affects others. While the circumstance may be pitied, we aren't. We "praise Him in the storm". Sometimes new relationships are made. These wouldn't have been possible without the misfortune. That's God moving heaven and earth to reach the lost sheep.
In terms of new relationships, I've learned to invest in the ones that form. I used to put energy into making them and would be sad at those that weren't interested. I've since seen those as ones not of God and don't worry about them. It's been liberating to think that way. God will open the doors He chooses. Some friendships weren't meant to happen. To look at that more deeply, God is sparing us all that energy that would need to be expended. We may have been exhausted by them. Thank You, God.
As we grow in experience and faith we praise Him for all He does. That goes for these supposed tough times. It takes faith to praise Him in the storm. As we walk with Him we get to witness Him using these for the good. We get to grow in expectancy and think, "God, how will You use this? I'm excited to see and will praise You while I wait."
Lord, we can honestly say thank You for the tough times. Those that some see as prisons. We can rejoice in all things.