Acts 16:25-26 reminds us what two Christian’s can do when the world has done their worst as God joins Paul and Silas in the prison praise which sets them free. Folks, how radical is this? Here are these two fellows who are beaten severally, bloodied, dirty, in a dark cold damp cell. Their legs are spread apart so that they can not have any comfort as they are forced to stand. And what comes out of their mouths is not cursing or pity but praise to God.
Now I want you to think of this and ask yourself, What does it take for you to stop praising God?What will it take to rob you of joy?
Do you find that the only time you can praise God is during pleasant circumstances? Hey family of God, anyone can be happy when things are going your way but joy, true joy can only come from keeping your eyes on the author and finisher of our faith.
God does not create JOY by new surroundings, He creates new surroundings by JOY!” So what was their secret? Well it’s simple! They just looked at the Lord and not their circumstances. Simply put they used what they knew to be true about God to interpret the circumstance.
Praising God does not have anything to do with circumstances, it has only and everything to do with relationship. Let me just challenge you next time you are having a horrible day to start singing a praise song to the Lord.
According to Verse 26 you never know who might join you in the chorus. God, joins Paul and Silas in the praise which sets them free! Now verse 25 tells us that the other prisoners were listening to the concert that night. Folks, it’s not the circumstances that we live in that touches the hearts of those who don’t know Jesus it’s how we go through them that reveals who we trust in!
So much of what the world sees of us Christians is that we only rejoice what we get what we want, but when they see you and I rejoicing because of Who we know then they will have the same reaction as the jailer.
People of the world are always watching to see what will SHAKE us up and when the things that normally wipe them out causes us to sing to the Lord it shakes them up!