03/23/2025
In Acts 16, God's Apostle and his companion are blessed with a beating.
They are whipped bloody and put in chains in a dark prison cell. Rats, rotten straw, and the worst smells possible are the environment they are forced into.
They didn't have a say.
This was something they had to endure.
Why?
What would our conversation with God be like if this happened to us?
Would we get angry and threaten to quit the relationship because He let it happen?
Would we drop into the depths of despair because we felt like God had forgotten us?
One of my pet peeves is people who claim the devil is responsible for every bad thing that happens and that God wasn't in it.
The truth is, sometimes God is involved in the bad things that happen to us.
Sometimes, it's even part of His plan.
What Paul and Silas didn't know was that there was a jailor there who God set them up to save. And perhaps even some prisoners too.
It would take a praise and worship session in the middle of the night and an earthquake to do it. But God needed someone to have that praise and worship session in the prison.
Who was He going to get?
Who would be willing to praise God in spite of the beatings, in spite of the circumstance?
Paul and Silas.
So they are the ones who were chosen to experience the bad, so that God could do His perfect work.
Here's a serious question: if God needs a praise party in a prison, would you be willing? Or would that be too much to ask?
Now replace prison with your circumstance.
What if God put you in the position you're in right now to get a miracle-causing praise from your lips?
Would you be willing to sing that song?
How about tomorrow?
Tomorrow is Sunday, a day we gather together for the purpose of worship.
Why don't you bring your prison, your beatings, your pain, your suffering, your scars, your complaints, your weariness, your struggles, your chains, your darkness...
Whatever it is, bring it to church.
Lay it down before God and lift up your hands and your voice and sing praises.
Then, watch as an earthquake happens in your favor and for His will!
