04/16/2020
Today’s devotion comes from Acts 16 and is a call to lift our voices and sing. How can we infuse this moment with meaning and purpose? You can do the very thing you were created to do, glorify God and enjoy him!
Our struggle, joy, crisis, laughter, isolation, grief, pain, anger, frustration, and great accomplishments are not meaningless! You were created for this moment. We can say and think “never in a million years would I have ever imagined…”, but this is not God’s perspective.
Read this account of Paul and Silas’ missionary work. Pay careful attention to how they responded to a moment of crisis and isolation.
Once when we were going to the place of prayer, we were met by a female slave who had a spirit by which she predicted the future. She earned a great deal of money for her owners by fortune-telling.
She followed Paul and the rest of us, shouting, “These men are servants of the Most High God, who are telling you the way to be saved.” She kept this up for many days. Finally Paul became so annoyed that he turned around and said to the spirit, “In the name of Jesus Christ I command you to come out of her!” At that moment the spirit left her.
When her owners realized that their hope of making money was gone, they seized Paul and Silas and dragged them into the marketplace to face the authorities. They brought them before the magistrates and said, “These men are Jews, and are throwing our city into an uproar by advocating customs unlawful for us Romans to accept or practice.”
The crowd joined in the attack against Paul and Silas, and the magistrates ordered them to be stripped and beaten with rods. After they had been severely flogged, they were thrown into prison, and the jailer was commanded to guard them carefully. When he received these orders, he put them in the inner cell and fastened their feet in the stocks.
About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the other prisoners were listening to them. Suddenly there was such a violent earthquake that the foundations of the prison were shaken. At once all the prison doors flew open, and everyone’s chains came loose.
The jailer woke up, and when he saw the prison doors open, he drew his sword and was about to kill himself because he thought the prisoners had escaped. But Paul shouted, “Don’t harm yourself! We are all here!”
The jailer called for lights, rushed in and fell trembling before Paul and Silas. 30 He then brought them out and asked, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?”
They replied, “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved—you and your household.” Then they spoke the word of the Lord to him and to all the others in his house. At that hour of the night the jailer took them and washed their wounds; then immediately he and all his household were baptized. The jailer brought them into his house and set a meal before them; he was filled with joy because he had come to believe in God—he and his whole household.
— Acts 16:16-34 NIV
Crisis and isolation are great revealers. We learn so much about ourselves in these moments. We learn about what we value, what we long for, and what matters most. What did Paul and Silas’ imprisonment reveal about their hearts? How did they choose to maintain their joy?
Be encouraged by this passage from 1 Corinthians 15 and take this promise into whatever your day brings to you.
So, my dear brothers and sisters, be strong and immovable. Always work enthusiastically for the Lord, for you know that nothing you do for the Lord is ever useless.
— 1 Corinthians 15:58 NLT
Now, join us in lifting our voices together.
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