Christ Life Church Zambia - Pastor Mulenga Chella

Day 1

Pastor Mulenga stood in front of people who had wronged him — his own brothers, in Joseph's case — and said something that should be impossible: what you meant for evil, God meant for good. That line from Genesis 50:20 was not just a theological statement; it was a lived reality. For Mulenga, the prison cell that felt like the end of everything turned out to be the preparation room for everything that followed. Joseph's story and Mulenga's story rhyme in a way that is hard to miss. Both men were handed a situation they did not choose, did not deserve, and could not escape on their own terms. And in both cases, God was not absent — He was working. That is the claim at the heart of this week's devotional. Not that suffering is good, but that God is good inside of suffering. Not that injustice doesn't hurt, but that hurt is not the final word. If you are in a hard season right now — one that feels random, unfair, or simply too long — today's passage is an invitation to ask a different question. Not only 'why is this happening?' but also 'what might God be building in me through this?' That shift in question does not erase the pain, but it opens the door to hope.

For reflection

Is there a painful or confusing season in your life that you haven't yet allowed yourself to imagine God redeeming? What makes that hard to believe?

Pray

Pray for the faith to believe that God is at work even in circumstances that feel meaningless or unjust.

Day 2

Before Israel entered the land God had promised, He walked them through the wilderness — and He wanted them to understand why. Deuteronomy 8:2-4 says He led them there to humble them, to test them, and to know what was in their hearts. He let them go hungry, then fed them with manna. He let their sandals wear out — and then didn't let them wear out. The wilderness was not a detour from God's plan; it was the plan. Pastor Mulenga pointed to this passage because it names what he experienced. More than two years in a Tanzanian prison was not a gap in his story. It was the very ground where God was preparing him for what came next. The pattern in Deuteronomy is important: God does not test people to find out something He doesn't already know. He tests them so that they will know — so that faith forged under pressure becomes faith they can carry forward with confidence. Whatever wilderness you may be walking through today, this passage asks you to consider: what is God revealing to you about yourself, and about His faithfulness, in this specific season? That question is worth sitting with honestly.

For reflection

Looking back on a past difficult season, what did God reveal about your own heart — or His faithfulness — that you couldn't have seen any other way?

Pray

Pray for humility to receive whatever God is teaching you in a current or recent season of difficulty.

Day 3

Jesus does not suggest loving your enemy. He commands it. And Pastor Mulenga did not describe that command as a feeling he eventually arrived at — he described it as a choice he made at real personal cost. The man responsible for his imprisonment was in the same cell block. Mulenga chose to care for him practically, to treat him with dignity, and to pray for him. That obedience was not easy, and the sermon doesn't pretend it was. But something happened. The man's heart changed. He eventually came to faith. And when the time came, that same man was part of how Mulenga was released. Loving an enemy is not a strategy for getting what you want — Mulenga did not know how things would turn out when he made that choice. But Matthew 5:44 is a window into how God works: when we obey at cost, He moves in ways we could not have engineered. Think today about whether there is someone in your life toward whom love feels impossible or undeserved. You don't have to resolve the feeling first. The invitation from Jesus is to act — to do something kind, to say something true and gentle, to pray for them — and to trust Him with what comes next.

For reflection

Is there someone you genuinely find difficult to love right now? What would one small, practical act of love toward that person look like this week?

Pray

Pray for the willingness — not just the ability — to love someone who has hurt or wronged you.

Day 4

Related passage

In a Tanzanian prison cell, with no congregation, no ministry platform, and no certainty about the future, Pastor Mulenga had one consistent source of strength: God's Word, read and prayed through daily. He did not describe the Bible as a theological reference he consulted. He described it as the thing that sustained him when nothing else could. Psalm 119:105 captures what he experienced — 'Your word is a lamp to guide my feet and a light for my path.' A lamp doesn't illuminate the entire road. It gives you enough light for the next step. That is exactly what the Word does in dark seasons. It doesn't always explain what God is doing. It doesn't always make the pain smaller. But it orients you. It reminds you who God is, what He has done, and what He has promised. If you have a consistent practice of reading Scripture, this week is an invitation to ask whether you are approaching it as a discipline to complete or as a conversation with the living God. If you don't yet have that practice, today is as good a day as any to begin — even slowly, even briefly. One passage, read with your full attention, can do more than a chapter skimmed in a hurry.

For reflection

When life feels uncertain or discouraging, do you tend to reach for the Bible first — or is that usually a later stop? What does your honest answer reveal?

Pray

Pray for a growing hunger for God's Word — not just as information, but as daily sustenance.

Day 5

Related passage

Pastor Mulenga's story is not primarily about prison. It is about what prison produced. He emerged not bitter, not broken in spirit, but with a testimony that has moved people across continents to surrender their lives to Jesus. Romans 5:3-5 describes exactly this kind of arc: suffering produces endurance, endurance produces character, and character produces hope — a hope that does not disappoint, because the Holy Spirit has poured God's love into our hearts. Paul is not romanticizing suffering. He is tracing a real process. The hard thing does something in us — if we stay in it with God rather than running from it or letting it harden us. Mulenga stayed. He prayed. He obeyed. He forgave. And what was produced in him became the very thing God used to reach others. This passage is an encouragement to you if you are in the middle of something hard and wonder whether it is doing anything at all. It may be doing exactly what Romans 5 describes — slowly, invisibly building something in you that God intends to use for someone else's good. The process is real, even when it doesn't feel like it.

For reflection

What character quality — patience, compassion, trust, or something else — do you sense God may be building in you through a current difficulty?

Pray

Pray for the endurance to stay faithful through a season that has felt long or discouraging.

Day 6

Related passage

Matthew 5:44 gives us the command to love our enemies. Luke 6:27-28 opens that same teaching into four practical dimensions: love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, and pray for those who mistreat you. Mulenga did all four of these things — not all at once, not without struggle, but concretely and over time. He did good toward his persecutor. He prayed for him. He treated him with dignity in a place where dignity was scarce. These verses are a useful mirror to hold up to whatever difficult relationship or grievance you may be carrying. The question is not whether you feel warmly toward the person. The question is whether there is a concrete next step — doing good, praying, blessing — that you can take regardless of how you feel. The feeling often follows the action rather than leading it. Mulenga did not feel his way into loving his enemy; he chose his way in, and God honored that choice in ways he could not have predicted. What is one specific thing you could do this week — however small — toward someone who has been hard to love? Today's passage makes the invitation very practical.

For reflection

Of the four dimensions in Luke 6:27-28 — loving, doing good, blessing, and praying — which one feels most impossible for you right now, and why?

Pray

Pray for the courage to take one concrete step toward someone you find genuinely difficult to love.

Day 7

This week began and ended with a single life lived in obedience to Jesus — and with the God who was faithful through every part of it. Pastor Mulenga's closing appeal was not complicated. It was one word: surrender. But he was honest that surrender looks different for every person. For some, it means receiving Jesus as Lord for the very first time. For others, it means releasing a grudge that has been carried so long it feels load-bearing. For still others, it means saying yes to a calling that feels too costly — sharing the gospel with someone, stepping into a new season of service, or simply being faithful where you already are. Whatever your 'yes' looks like, Mulenga's testimony is evidence that God meets people who surrender. He sustained Mulenga in a prison cell. He used that obedience for the conversion of an enemy and the freedom of a servant. He can do the same with whatever you place in His hands today. Life, as Mulenga said, is an opportunity God gives us to love, serve, and honor Him — regardless of our circumstances. This week has been an invitation into that kind of life. The question now is simply: what is the next yes God is asking of you?

For reflection

As you reflect on this week, what is the one specific act of surrender — receiving Jesus, forgiving someone, saying yes to a calling — that you sense God is inviting you toward right now?

Pray

Pray for the courage and clarity to say your specific 'yes' to God today, whatever shape that takes for you.

Christ Life Church Zambia - Pastor Mulenga Chella - Full Service

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