Not Bound: John Bunyan and 2 Timothy 2:9

A tinker from a small English village, locked in a county jail for twelve years for the "crime" of preaching. That is how John Bunyan's story reads on paper, and yet it is the same cell where one of the most widely printed Christian books in the English language began to take shape.

According to Wikipedia, Bunyan (1628-1688) grew up mending pots and pans like his father, served as a young soldier, and came to faith after his marriage. After 1660, when the freedom of nonconformist preachers was cut back, he was arrested and refused to stop preaching. During his years in prison he wrote his spiritual autobiography, Grace Abounding to the Chief of Sinners, and began The Pilgrim's Progress, which went on to over a thousand editions.

Paul, writing from his own chains, said it best:

"But the word of God is not bound." - 2 Timothy 2:9 (KJV)

Bunyan's body was shut in, but the Word was not. A season that looks like a closed door, a stalled business, a long wait, a hard diagnosis, may be exactly where God is writing something that will outlast us.

Prayer point: Lord, where we feel shut in, let Your Word still go out through our lives. Amen.

Over to you:
- Has a closed door or a long waiting season ever turned out to be the place where God did His deepest work in you?
- Which Bible verse kept you standing when things were tight? Share it with the community.

Sources: Wikipedia (John Bunyan, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Bunyan). Bible text: KJV.
Photo: John Bunyan by Thomas Sadler, 1684, via Wikimedia Commons