“Art thou called being a servant? care not for it: but if thou mayest be made free, use it rather. For he that is called in the Lord, being a servant, is the Lord’s freeman: likewise also he that is called, being free, is Christ’s servant.” (1 Corinthians 7:21)
In 1 Corinthians 7, Paul counsels those who find themselves in less than pleasurable circumstances. Not only slaves who would like to be free; but single people who would like to be married, and married people who would like to be single.
What is Paul’s advice? Don’t soak in your misery. There is a focus on our pain that brings us under its power. Jesus was not immune to pain, but He endured the cross by despising its shame. (Heb. 12:2) This is not about denial, or stoic detachment; it is about seeing our lives through God’s lens. Where we are in the natural should not dictate where we are in the supernatural. God gives His beloved a song in the night; He comforts them in all their tribulation; He gives them eyes to see who they are and what they have in Him.
The enemy of our soul is never interested in comforting us. He rubs salt into our wounds. The god of this world is the god of all misery. The song in the night that he would give us is: “Woe is me!” Paul learned how to stand in the evil day by taking up the shield of faith that quenched every fiery dart of the devil. By hearing from God, he shut the devil up.
Don’t walk by sight. Don’t look at your circumstance through the lens of the world, the flesh, or the devil. Seeing things the way God would have you see them will change your tune. You may end up with a song for the ages.