In moments of challenge, you and I have two options: We can yield to anxiety, or we can choose thanksgiving. We can rejoice in our secure spiritual inheritance. We can rest in God’s promises of provision. We can trust the One who holds us in the palms of His nail-scarred hands.
This November, God is pressing home to my soul the myriad reasons I have to give Him thanks. All across America, men and women like you are presenting the Gospel of hope to souls in physical and spiritual captivity. Perhaps you are going into prison or investing your resources. You might be praying for prisoners regularly or welcoming them into your church congregation when they are released. You might be buying Christmas gifts for prisoners’ children, or you might be writing to your lawmakers, urging them to take a stand for restorative justice. Whatever you are doing, you are daring to believe that a cycle of renewal can replace the cycle of crime and incarceration. What courageous agents of transformation! I am eternally thankful for everyone who makes Prison Fellowship an effective vessel of God’s mercy.
In this month of numbering our blessings, you top my list. Yes, there are plenty of challenges in front of us; there are still nearly 2.3 million Americans behind bars; 2.7 million children and their caregivers deal with the painful realities of a parent’s incarceration; 700,000 men and women will come home this year and struggle to enter back into the community. But because friends like you are responding each day to God’s call to remember those in prison, the reasons for hope far outweigh any grim statistic. Together we can rejoice in what God is doing, trust in His provision for the future, and give thanks for His continued restoration of the broken.