PROCLAMATION
“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.” Acts 16:25-26 (NIV)
EXPLANATION
Paul went to Macedonia in response to a vision
he had. (Acts 16:9-10) There he met Lydia, a wealthy woman who
worshiped God. He baptized her, and he and Silas stayed at her
house. (Acts 16:13-15) One day, on their way to the place of prayer,
they met a female slave who had a spirit within her by which she predicted the
future. Her owners earned a great deal of money from her
fortune-telling. For many days she followed them around shouting,
“These men are servants of The Most High God …” and annoyed Paul so that he
called the spirit out of her. (Acts 16:16-18) This upset her owners
who lost their hope of making more money through her. So they had
Paul and Silas arrested. Because of the charges which they brought
against them, they were stripped, beaten, severely flogged, thrown into prison
and put in the stocks. (Acts 16:19-24) While in prison the prayed
and praised God, and suddenly their chains fell off and the prison doors flew
open. They did not leave the prison. When the jailer saw what had happened, he led
them out of the prison and brought them to his house. There Paul and Silas spoke the word of The
Lord to all that were in his house, and the jailer and his whole household were
saved. (Acts 16:27- 34)
APPLICATION
We are encouraged to always pray (Luke 18:1)
and His praise should always be on our lips. (Psalm 34:1) However,
when things have gone from bad to worse, and life has gotten us down, and it
seems that there is no way out, it is hard to be positive. When
things appear to be at their worst, that is the time when we should pray and
praise The Lord anyhow. The Lord God can make a way out of no
way. There is no problem or situation that is so bad that God cannot
fix it. We need to exercise our faith in
order for it to get stronger. It takes
some pretty strong faith to praise Him when things are much worse than we ever imagined. Remember,
we cannot have a testimony without first going through a test. Trust
in The Lord. Pray until something
happens. Praise Him in the midst of our
storms because all things work together for the good of those who love Him.
(Romans 8:28)
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