A sweet friend of mine found herself in the city jail after her mother-in-law pressed fraudulent charges against her. She was in a holding cell with other women you find on the weekend at night in the jail. You just have to know this girlfriend. She talked with each of the women in there, got to know them, heard their stories, and laughed with them. She bloomed where she was planted. She was released from jail, but the point is, she bloomed.
You are so not going to like reading this one, so if you aren’t in the mood for it, move on to something else. You’ve been warned.
I’m reading through Acts and in Acts 16:25-34, we find Paul and Silas singing. In jail. At midnight.
First of all, I’m not awake at midnight. If I’m awake at midnight, it’s not a good thing.
Second, if I’m sitting in jail at midnight, I can guarantee you I won’t be singing. I might be praying, but I won’t be singing.
In verse 25 it says, “and the prisoners were listening to them.” Have you ever found yourself sitting in the proverbial jail cell in life? What did you do? What did those around you hear come out of your mouth?
When you are going through a hardship which God has allowed, then He has allowed it for a purpose. Those prisoners might have never heard prayers and songs of worship to Yahweh if Paul and Silas weren’t in prison. Close your eyes and think about the surroundings. It’s dark and dank. It smells. There are probably rodents. You might have been beaten that day. You might have gone without food that day. You may have become ill that day, and then you hear in the still of the night, two men singing a capella worship songs to God. I would find it like a salve to my soul.
When you are sitting in the emergency room, the waiting room, the courtroom, the police station, there are people around you who are struggling and hurting and carrying burdens they won’t share, but what do they hear and see in you. Do they see peace in your face? Do they hear a prayer on her lips? Do they hear a hum of worship and praise from your voice? Just because you are going through a hard time does not mean that your job as a Christian stops or ends. It means your job as a Christian is taken up a notch or two.
When God allows Christians to go through hard times, and the body of believers behave like the body of Christ by supporting and encouraging instead of judging and gossiping, those in the world can’t help but see and hear a difference. They are hurting. They want the hurting to stop just as badly as you do. The difference is you have hope. They see you have hope. You have an opportunity to share hope, or someone in your support group has the opportunity to share hope.
God is not concerned with whether or not we are comfortable in our circumstances. He is concerned with whether or not we are behaving as His children and being His hands and feet and loving those who He puts in front of us. He is extending our borders like He did for Jabez. People you would never have had the opportunity to minister to you now are privileged to show the love of Christ.
Step out of your pity party. Step into the role God has called you to do.
Step out of your self-centeredness. Step into focusing on the lost and those who need a hope and a future (Jeremiah 29:11).
As Scripture tells us, there was a violent earthquake. It was so violent it opened the jail cell doors and everyone’s chains came off. The jailer was going to kill himself because they were going to kill him anyway for allowing the prisoners to escape, but Paul spoke up. Paul told him no one had escaped.
Those who had been hearing worship and prayer chose not to escape. How awesome is that?
As a result of these events, the jailer and his complete household came to the saving knowledge of Jesus Christ. Had Paul and Silas not been beaten and thrown in prison, this jailer may not have ever heard the good news.
We are to seize every opportunity, whether it is a good time for us or not, to tell others about the hope we have in Jesus, about the love of Jesus, and about the future we have in Jesus.
Let’s be faithful wherever we find ourselves today. Let’s be about our Father’s business regardless of whether or not we are going through trials and adversities or we are having a time of peace. And let’s really look at those who God places before us and follow God’s lead as to what to say and what to do.
