Ryan Skoog had a friend who went in a mission trip to Russia after the fall of communism. 

They went to a former gulag, a forced labour camp. Horrible things had happened in that location. Their mission was to deconstruct the prison and repurpose the stones to build a church. 

Their mission was to make something good and beautiful out of something bad and ugly.

After several days, they found something. It was a canister with a note that was tucked in amongst the stones. They gathered around as someone read it, tears building up in their eyes as they did so: “We are a community of believers being forced to take the stones of our church and use them to build our own prison. We pray one day God will hear us and use these stones to build a church again.” 

Incredible! A long time ago there had been a church. Its members were forced to tear it down and use the stones to build their own prison. When that happened, they prayed for a day in the future when the prison would be torn down and rebuilt as a church again. They hid their prayer request in a canister amongst the stones for someone in the future to find. And that’s exactly what happened.*

It’s easy to get discouraged when all we see is defeat or darkness. But ours is a God who doesn’t give up. He is stronger than any adversary. He is smarter than any foe. He has his own timeline. He can’t not win. After all, he’s God.

Paul includes this word of praise in Ephesians 3:20-21: “Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever.”

He is able to do far more abundantly, not less. 

Just because you can’t see God working, that doesn’t mean he isn’t. No matter the nation, no matter the language, no matter the obstacle, the Lord Almighty is a never-failing warrior for his people.

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Notes:

–An Invitation to Help: I’m looking for one (or three) individuals to help expand the online reach of ‘The Pulse Podcast with Matthew Ruttan’ and ‘The Up Daily Devotional.’ Click here to learn more in the one-page explanation.

-*Ryan Skoog, Peter Greer, and Cameron Doolittle, Lead with Prayer: The Spiritual Habits of World-Changing Leaders (Nashville: Faith Words, 2025), 205-6.

-Bible quotes are from the ESV.