There is no heart that God cannot reach…

Last month, I was reading through the Book of Acts and found myself amid Paul’s conversion, just as Prisons Week was coming to an end. The words in my New Living Translation struck me as I was reminded of the hardness of Paul’s heart before his encounter with Jesus. ‘He wanted to bring them—both men and women—back to Jerusalem in chains,’ (Acts 9:2b) simply for believing in Jesus.

Yet, just a few paragraphs away, we find Jesus waiting along a road, ready to turn Paul’s life upside down. Paul, the man persecuting Christians, is the man Jesus chooses to spread His Gospel around the world. The most unlikely choice, right?

Jesus chose the man who once bound people in chains for their faith to go and break the chains of countless souls through that very same faith.

And He still has plans for many others like Paul, whose hearts may seem hard and unreachable. Hearts like many of those in our prison system…

This year’s Prisons Week campaign reminded us that ‘God’s Word is not chained.’ (2 Timothy 2:9) Nothing can be chained that belongs to God. Yet, there are so many hearts chained by shame, addiction, regret and so on.

Just a few chapters later, Acts 15:8 (NLT) tells us, ‘God knows people’s hearts.’ He knew Paul’s, He knows ours and He knows those in prison, too.

So, will you join us and continue to pray for all those in custody? May I encourage you this November to use our Prayer Diary as a daily prompt.

Just five minutes a day of prayer could lead to hearts becoming unchained — just like Paul’s did. Jesus is waiting just along the road, ready to turn lives upside down.

Rosie Orme is Prison Fellowship’s Communications Officer. 

Download the November Prayer Diary, with a prompt each day for how we can pray for our prisons and our ministries.

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