Acts 16:25-28 “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!” This episode is about how God has a plan, even if we don't understand it. It also talks about how God uses all things for good. Music:"Adding the Sun" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
Be Bold & Praise While You Wait (Be Bold Series)
Acts 16:25-28 “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!”
This story actually begins a few verses before this. In Acts 16:16-24 it says, “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.”
This is where our verse takes place. They have been beaten with rods and are now chained up in prison. You would think after a day like that they would feel defeated. You would think that they would be questioning God and asking Him why they have to suffer so much when they are just doing what He asked them to do. You might also think that they were passed out in pain and sleeping. Is this what they were doing? No, the verse says it was midnight and they were still praying and singing hymns to God, and the other prisoners were listening to them. This is something that always amazes me about the apostles and other believers in the faith, such as the Saints. I am always amazed by their strength. I know that God underwent extreme suffering in the 24 hours before He was crucified. He sweat drops of blood. If that is not suffering, I don’t know what is. And yet, I think we can downplay it sometimes and think, well, He is fully God and fully human, so of course He can withstand it; he is God. However, countless other Saints have gone through extreme suffering and have done it with joy.
Paul & Silas had just been beaten with rods, and yet they were not questioning God. They were praising and singing to Him. This is something that I think we can hear sometimes and not pause and think about how truly amazing it is. I don’t know if we glaze over it because we don’t understand it or because we don’t think we are capable of it. I don’t know the reason, but I wanted to pause and take a moment to recognize how remarkable these two are for how they endured their suffering. We could all learn a lot from them and how they lived not only when times were good but also when times were tough.
The verse says that at midnight, while they were praying and praising, they were set free. The door opened, and their chains came loose. What strikes me about this verse is that they were set free yet did not leave. They stayed there until morning, when the guard woke up. What I hear the Lord saying to me about this verse is that everything He does is for His glory and the good of His kingdom. If Paul & Silas would have left at midnight, they could have escaped. However, it would not have been known how they escaped. People could have said that someone broke in and freed them. God would not have gotten the Glory. However, by waiting until morning, they not only converted the guard and his whole house to believers, but they were also set free and did not have to worry about being caught for escaping.
Sometimes, the things we are going through or the things others are going through make no sense to us. If we had been there in that jail cell, it would have made no sense to us that when they were freed, they didn’t leave the cell. I can’t imagine sitting in that cell and just waiting for the jailer to wake up when we could have escaped and been hours away by the time the jailer woke up. Luckily, Paul and Silas were good at listening to the Lord and trusting in Him. They were not scared in that jail cell. They praised the Lord and trusted that the Lord would get them out of the situation. They were patient and waited on the Lord’s timing, and by doing so, they saved the jailer and his whole family.
Do you see how if the apostles left at midnight, they would have escaped and would have been free? Do you also see that they did not leave at midnight, yet they were still free? We never know how God will work things out for us. Sometimes, we can only see things in black and white. We can see only two choices. For instance, we could see that if we left the cell when the door was opened, then we would be free. However, if we stay there, then we would be stuck in jail forever. Sometimes, we are so angry, upset, scared, and afraid that we can’t see all the possibilities. We only see the two. Sometimes, we may not see all the options because we have limited information, whereas God has all the information He would ever need. It seems as though the apostles waited for God to tell them what to do next. They trusted that God would take care of it even though they didn’t know what would happen next.
This may be the same in some circumstances in our lives, too. We may not understand why God asks us to wait a little longer. We know God can save us now, but we don’t understand why He isn’t. We don’t understand why we are going through all of this in the first place. Maybe God is using this thing you are going through to save someone else. Maybe by watching your strength in the face of your situation, someone will decide to give God a try. Maybe after watching how you were saved from your circumstances, someone else has also decided to be saved. We don’t know what God’s plan is or why He does what He does. There is one thing that we can be sure of, and that is that God has a plan, and He has a reason for everything. God can use all things for His glory. We may think that some things are a coincidence. However, if you look back over the last 5 or 10 years of your life, I bet you will see how those things you felt were coincidences were actually things that God timed out perfectly for a specific reason. It is amazing to me how detailed God’s plan is. He has every tiny detail planned out.
The next time we get tired of waiting for our suffering to end, maybe we can remember this verse, pray, and praise him even when we are struggling. We can remember that if He has not saved us yet, it is for a reason and that a greater good will come from our situation. I know that doesn’t always make it easier for us when we are in the moment. However, I felt God wanted me to share with you that even when we don’t know His plan and don’t understand it, we should still know that He has a plan, and it is for our good and the good of his whole church.
Dear Heavenly Father, I ask that you bless all those listening to this episode today. We ask that you give us the strength of Paul and Silas when we suffer. Lord, we ask that you give us the strength and the wisdom to pray and sing praises to you when we are suffering. Help us know that you have a plan even when we don’t see or understand it. Help us to know that we are never suffering in vain. You will always use our suffering for your glory. We love you, Lord, and thank you for all you do for us. You are amazing, and we ask all of this in accordance with your will and Jesus’ holy name. Amen.
Thank you so much for joining me on this journey to walk Boldly with Jesus. This month’s theme for mentoring is “I Am Made New.” I invite you to join us on Tuesday night and learn how you are made new through Christ. You can find all this information at walkboldlywithjesus.com or click on the link below. I look forward to meeting you here again tomorrow. Remember, Jesus loves you just as you are, and so do I! Have a blessed day!
Today’s Word from the Lord was received in September 2024 by a member of my Catholic Charismatic Prayer Group. If you have any questions about the prayer group, these words, or how to join us for a meeting, please email CatholicCharismaticPrayerGroup@gmail.com. Today’s Word from the Lord is, “In the silence of your hearts, I speak to you. I am not a loud, clanging, noisy voice that distracts you. I am just a small whisper telling you, “Turn to the right - go here. Turn to the left - see that person; they need your help. They need your prayers”.