Acts 16:25-26 (ESV)
About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the prisoners were listening to them, and suddenly there was a great earthquake, so that the foundations of the prison were shaken. And immediately all the doors were opened, and everyone’s bonds were unfastened.
Imagine being arrested, tortured and then thrown into prison not because of a crime committed but because of Christ and His Gospel! This was the situation that Paul and Silas found themselves in. Paul had cast out a demon from a girl and her owners who profited from her fortune telling were greatly angered and instigated the crowds to accuse them. Nevertheless, when Paul and Silas found themselves in the Philippian jail, they did not pout nor complain. Rather, they prayed and sang hymns to God as the other prisoners listened to them. In other words, they worshipped God amid a terrible situation.
Our worship of God should not be dependent on our life’s situation. We must teach ourselves to worship both in the good and in the bad times. As we learn from the story of Paul and Silas, God did move into their situation as they praised Him and opened the prison doors and unfastened their chains. Indeed, as we worship the LORD, He works out a great victory for us. However, the story in Acts 16 is not meant to act as some sort of formula, where we use worship as a means to us attaining victory. Paul and Silas were simply worshipping God in their difficult circumstance, and He chose to intervene on their behalf. Of course, we should not be under the illusion that this kind of worship is easy, but we must seek, through the help of the Holy Spirit, to mature in our faith to get there. Let us then, even in our most painful situations, borrow a leaf from Paul and Silas but also from Lamentations 3:19-24:
_Remember my affliction and my wanderings,_
_the wormwood and the gall!_
_My soul continually remembers it_
_and is bowed down within me._
_But this I call to mind_
_and therefore I have hope:_
_The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases;_
_his mercies never come to an end_
_they are new every morning;_
_great is your faithfulness._
_“The Lord is my portion,” says my soul,_
_“therefore I will hope in him.”_
Reflections
1. Why do you think Paul and Silas were still able to worship God even in a difficult situation?
2. How does your worship life look like when you go through difficult situations?
3. In what ways does today’s devotion challenge and possibly change your attitude towards and action on worship?
