Bible Text: Rev. 3:20 | Speaker: Darlene Sala | Series: Encouraging Words | Can you imagine being a prisoner in the infamous Paris Bastille for 15 years? That was the experience of Madame Jeanne Guyon [GUY-on}, a member of the French nobility. Many others shared her experience as well during that historic era of infamy.  But Madame Guyon’s attitude made all the difference in the world.  She firmly believed that she was there in prison in the will of God.

The reality that God was with her is what helped her to survive the terrible living conditions and to conquer the loneliness as well. She had such great delight in God that her spirit soared far above the prison walls. In fact, she said the stones in her prison shone like rubies. Here’s what she wrote:

 
A little bird am I.
Shut out from fields of air,
Yet in my cage I sit and sing
To him who placed me there!
Well pleased a prisoner to be,
Because, my God, it pleaseth Thee.
 

Madame Guyon chose to accept everything that happened to her as coming from the hand of God. She learned not to fight difficulties but to realize that if God allowed them, He would supply the strength she needed.

She also learned that she could have moment-by-moment communication with the Lord that banishes loneliness. Many of us believe this in theory, but we haven’t learned the reality that He is literally right there to share every moment with us. So we put expectations on those around us to meet our needs, and we’re disappointed when they don’t, when actually God made our hearts with needs that only He can meet.

Are you feeling isolated and alone? Jesus said, “Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with him, and he with me” (Rev. 3:20). When you make Him your dearest friend, you, too, can soar above the prison walls of loneliness.