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Oct 16, 2024 06:00am

Praising in the Dark

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Before the mid-1980s, DNA testing wasn’t available to law enforcement as they worked their cases. Many people were wrongly convicted and sentenced to years in prison. Once DNA testing became available, several convictions were overturned due to new evidence that exonerated the “guilty” party.

Can you imagine?

Who would you be inside those prison walls? In the darkness, with chains shackled to your hands and feet, would anger boil within you?

I’ll admit, I would be angry. I’d harbor resentment at the people who did this and those who pronounced this judgment on me.

But that’s not the example Paul gives us.

Acts 16:20-25

“They brought them before the magistrates and said, “These men are Jews, and are throwing our city into an uproar

21 by advocating customs unlawful for us Romans to accept or practice.”

22 The crowd joined in the attack against Paul and Silas, and the magistrates ordered them to be stripped and beaten with rods.

23 After they had been severely flogged, they were thrown into prison, and the jailer was commanded to guard them carefully.

24 When he received these orders, he put them in the inner cell and fastened their feet in the stocks.

25 About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the other prisoners were listening to them.”

Wrongfully accused, beaten, stripped, and thrown into prison and into complete darkness, shackled with no way of escape. And yet, Paul and Silas weren’t plotting their revenge. They weren’t discussing their accusers, the injustice, or their wounds.

They were singing and praising God.

Stop.

Close your eyes and imagine these beaten men chained in that cold, wet, filthy, dark, rat-infested prison, and read that again.

They were singing and praising God.

And God used it!

Look at what happened next.

“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.

27 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.

28 But Paul shouted, “Don’t harm yourself! We are all here!”

29 The jailer called for lights, rushed in and fell trembling before Paul and Silas.

30 He then brought them out and asked, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?”

31 They replied, “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved—you and your household.”

32 Then they spoke the word of the Lord to him and to all the others in his house.

33 At that hour of the night the jailer took them and washed their wounds; then immediately he and all his household were baptized.

34 The jailer brought them into his house and set a meal before them; he was filled with joy because he had come to believe in God—he and his whole household.”

What are you feeling right now?

Shock? Amazement? Awestruck?

Only God could have done this! And it all started with their faithfulness and love for the Lord. Their songs of praise didn’t come because of blessings. Their song came from the heart – one overflowing with their love and relationship with the Father.

Their praise wasn’t because they had received something good but because God IS good!

Who are we in the darkness? What comes from our lips when the odds are stacked against us when we are persecuted, hurt, despised, and rejected? When it seems all is lost, and we are in complete despair, will we spew hatred and vengeance, or will we praise the King of Kings and Lord of Lords that we even have breath in our lungs? Will we remember His mission for us here on this earth – to glorify Him and share His love with the nations?

I took this picture the other night. Yes, this is at night. It was so dark outside, but because of the brightness of the moon, the valley was illuminated. The moon reflects the sun, just as we are to be a reflection of “The Son,” Jesus Christ, in this dark world. Are you shining for Him? Are you showing others the way?

If you want to know more about following Jesus and what it looks like to walk with Him every day, to have a relationship with Him like Paul and Silas, let me show you.

Go to follow.lifeword.org.