SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 4/26/2018 9:48 AM
My Worship Time Focus: PT-1
“Praise”
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference:
Acts 16:25-29
Message of the verses: “25 But about midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns of praise to God, and the prisoners were listening to them; 26 and suddenly there came a great earthquake, so that the foundations of the prison house were shaken; and immediately all the doors were opened and everyone’s chains were unfastened. 27 When the jailer awoke and saw the prison doors opened, he drew his sword and was about to kill himself, supposing that the prisoners had escaped. 28 But Paul cried out with a loud voice, saying, "Do not harm yourself, for we are all here!" 29 And he called for lights and rushed in, and trembling with fear he fell down before Paul and Silas,”
We looked at a definition of what joy is in an earlier
SD, and as I read over this passage I have to think that although this may not
be a definition of joy, it certainly does show us exactly what joy is. In the book of Hebrews chapter 12 we read “fixing
our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross,
despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.” Jesus gave us all the example of joy, and now
we see Paul and Silas also demonstrating joy.
We find Paul and Silas not able to sleep because of the beatings they
had just received, and we also find them in the center of this prison with
their feet in stocks, having their legs spread wide apart. They were obviously in great pain, and yet we
see them singing hymns of praise to the Lord.
Now because of their situation the other prisoners were listening to
them. I can totally understand why these
prisoners were listening to them, and it is because of their circumstances, and
I am sure that the prisoners knew what had happened to them, and yet they found
Paul and Silas singing praises to the Lord.
As I think about this I can’t help but think that probably most if not
all of their fellow prisoners were idol worshipers, and because of that these
prisoners would never sing to their idols if something similar happened to them
because they would have thought that they had done something to offend their gods
and therefore would not want to sing to them.
I think of Elijah as he is on Mt. Carmel surrounded by
idol worshipers who were calling on their gods to bring fire down from heaven
to set fire their sacrifices to them.
Elijah was actually teasing them saying that perhaps their gods were
sleeping or perhaps they had to go to the bathroom. These men were cutting themselves in order to
get their gods attention, and yet nothing happened. Elijah poured a great amount of water on his
sacrifice and the Lord answered him by having fire come down from heaven
licking up the water and burning his sacrifice.
We see the difference between idols and the Living God that Elijah
worshiped, and therefore the difference between the idols that these men in the
prison worshipped and the Lord Jesus Christ that Paul and Silas were praising
and worshiping in a very difficult time in their lives, and these prisoners
noticed this.
John MacArthur writes the following:
“How could the two
missionaries praise God under such conditions?
They understood what many Christians seem to forget—praising God does
not depend on circumstances. ‘Rejoice in
the Lord always,’ wrote Paul to the
Philippian church (Phil. 4:4; cf. 1 Thess. 5:16, 18). Christians do not rejoice in their circumstances; not even Paul did
that. He knew what it was to experience
affliction so severe that he was ‘burdened excessively’ and ‘despaired even of
life’ (2 Cor. 1:8). Christians rejoice in the
glorious truth that the sovereign God controls every circumstance of life. They ‘know that God causes all things to work
together for good to those who live God, to those who are called according to
His purpose’ (Rom. 8:28). When trials
come, believers can take comfort in the truth expressed by Peter in 1 Peter
5:10: ‘After you have suffered for a little while, the God of all grace, who
called you to His eternal glory in Christ, will Himself perfect, confirm,
strengthen and establish you.’ Like Paul
in 2 Corinthians 4:16-17 they can say:
‘16 Therefore we do not lose heart, but though our outer man is decaying, yet our inner man is being renewed day by day. 17 For momentary, light affliction is producing for us an eternal weight of glory far beyond all comparison.’
He adds in 2 Corinthians
12:9-10
9 And He has said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness." Most gladly, therefore, I will rather boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may dwell in me. 10 Therefore I am well content with weaknesses, with insults, with distresses, with persecutions, with difficulties, for Christ’s sake; for when I am weak, then I am strong.’”
In our next SD we will begin by looking at the key to
having joy in every circumstance.
Spiritual meaning
for my life today: I have to believe
that the Lord is talking to my heart about having joy in every circumstance,
something that I have studied before, but probably never truly understood, and
so I am thankful to the Lord for His teaching through these Spiritual Diaries
and also from our Pastor teaching us about joy as he preaches through the book
of Philippians.
My Steps of Faith for Today: Continue to trust the Lord as we see the
downward spiral of my wife’s father.
Answer to yesterday’s Bible
question: “Those of the house of Chloe”
(1 Corinthians 1:11).
Today’s Bible
question: “In the parable of the pounds,
how many pounds did the first servant’s pound gain?”
Answer in our next SD.
4/26/2018 10:23 AM
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