| Photo by David Nieto on Unsplash
When God is moving, be ready for a spiritual battle. When we are walking in obedience to God’s will, the enemy will try to discourage and defeat us. In Acts 16, Paul and Silas are on their second missionary trip to the Gentiles. People are getting delivered and coming to Christ. The whole city is upset about the teachings of Jesus from Paul and Silas. The city officials in verses 23-24 take them and have them stripped and beaten with wooden rods. After they were severely beaten, they were thrown into prison. They ordered the jailer to ensure they did not escape. So the jailer put them into the inner dungeon and clamped their feet in the stocks.”
How would we handle this? What would we do if we were Paul and Silas? Beaten? Thrown into jail? Placed in stocks? What were they doing to deserve this? They were obeying God and preaching the love of Jesus!
How did they respond? Acts 16:25; “Around midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the other prisoners were listening.”
Paul and Silas – just beaten and thrown into jail. Imagine the physical pain that they have endured from the beating with wooden rods. What was their mental state? What about not knowing if they were going to be killed? And how did they respond?
* Prayer – They are in prison, and they are praying! When do we pray? Do we pray when we are in the most difficult situations of life that are out of our control?
* Worship – They were singing and praising God! They were beaten, and they were praising and worshiping God. They were in pain, and they are praising! They do not know what will happen to them, and they are not worried, but they are worshiping God!
* Evangelism – The other prisoners were listening to them. People are listening to us and the words that come out of our mouths. People are listening to what we are saying as followers of Jesus. What do people hear and see from our lives when things are not going well?
Lord, help me to respond in a way that honors the Lord, and brings others to Jesus – because of what they see and hear from my life today!
ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Pastor Ronald Squibb has been the International Christian Center (ICC) Lead Senior Pastor at Staten Island, New York, since 2011. He draws on many experiences from his over 40 years as a pastor and from significant emotional experiences.
His new book, Following the Journey with Jesus, which he co-authored with Daniel McNaughton, was recently published and is receiving rave reviews. The daily devotion appears in this publication.
