Praising God Through Your Trials
Acts 16:19-30 (NLT)
19 Her masters’ hopes of wealth were now shattered, so they grabbed Paul and Silas and dragged them before the authorities at the marketplace. 20 “The whole city is in an uproar because of these Jews!” they shouted to the city officials. 21 “They are teaching customs that are illegal for us Romans to practice.”
22 A mob quickly formed against Paul and Silas, and the city officials ordered them stripped and beaten with wooden rods. 23 They were severely beaten, and then they were thrown into prison. The jailer was ordered to make sure they didn’t escape. 24 So the jailer put them into the inner dungeon and clamped their feet in the stocks.
25 Around midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the other prisoners were listening. 26 Suddenly, there was a massive earthquake, and the prison was shaken to its foundations. All the doors immediately flew open, and the chains of every prisoner fell off! 27 The jailer woke up to see the prison doors wide open. He assumed the prisoners had escaped, so he drew his sword to kill himself. 28 But Paul shouted to him, “Stop! Don’t kill yourself! We are all here!”
29 The jailer called for lights and ran to the dungeon and fell down trembling before Paul and Silas. 30 Then he brought them out and asked, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?”
Have you learned to praise God even during your trials? In the passage of scripture above, verse 25 says that around midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the prisoners were listening.
Wow! What a powerful testament of their love for God and their faith in Him. Paul and Silas had been stripped and severely beaten with wooden rods and thrown into prison, yet they found it in their hearts to sing and praise God. I am sure that this was comforting and encouraging to Paul and Silas as well as the other prisoners that were within the sound of their voices. Can you imagine how astonished their fellow prisoners probably were at the inner joy that they possessed? It really is true, that what is inside your heart will be what surfaces when pressure is applied. Because they had been in a habit of praising God when times were not so difficult, it was not hard to praise him when they were. This was their way of life, so it was probably as natural for them to pray and sing praises to God as for them to breathe.
Don’t you know that the other prisoners wondered, how do I find this God that they are singing to? What an example they were to the others.
Paul and Silas clearly knew that God was in control, and that alone was a reason to sing praises.
Another important point in this passage of scripture was that suddenly there was a massive earthquake, and the prison was shaken to its foundation. All of the doors immediately flew open and the chains of every prisoner fell off. For the jailer, that was left in charge of guarding Paul and Silas this was life-changing, to the point that he came to them and asked; “what must I do to be saved”.
When I read this, all I could say was look at God! He does things in such a way that everyone had to be clear, that He was at work.
Ladies if you want to thwart the enemy’s attack on your life, start praying and praising God. Praising God honors Him and it positions you to hear from
Him. The enemy can’t stand it when we praise God. When we praise God we are serving Him notice that our help is on the way and that we are protected and defended by the Highest God.
Another lesson from this scripture is that many times when we are going through our trials we assume that the trial is all about us. Know that God can work out some powerful things in the lives of others, while they are watching you go through your trial.
As Christians, we must remember that others are watching how we respond to our trials. Some will gain strength for their journey from our example. If you really believe that you serve a God that can do anything, it should be evident in the way you respond to your trials.
God works for His good and ours through our trials. We never know what wonderful things God plans to work from the trials that we face. Remember Joseph being thrown into the well by his brothers? God had a plan bigger and better than anyone could have ever imagined for Joseph’s life. Joseph continued to be faithful even while he was imprisoned. When God knew he was ready, he placed him second in command to Pharaoh. I bet that was a moment of prayer and praise.
Even though our trials our job is still to praise God. We were created to praise, so stand strong in your praise shoes because He is worthy to be praised! Have no fear He will deliver His children when He knows that they are ready for the promotion that He has reserved just for them, and that will certainly be another praise moment. Be blessed and keep praising!
