READING: 1 Samuel 23-24; 1 Chronicles 6; Psalm 54; Acts 16
Sometimes the transitions in stories of the Scriptures are jarring . . . unanticipated . . . even surprising. Watch for the unexpected in today’s New Testament reading about Paul and his ministry in Philippi:
“The crowd joined in the attack against them, and the chief magistrates stripped off their clothes and ordered them to be beaten with rods. After they had severely flogged them, they threw them in jail, ordering the jailer to guard them carefully. Receiving such an order, he put them into the inner prison and secured their feet in the stocks. About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the prisoners were listening to them.” (Acts 16:23-25)
The story begins with an angry crowd turning on Paul and Silas. After all, their casting a demon out of the fortune-telling girl would seriously cut into the profits of the people in the city. The magistrates stripped Paul and Silas and ordered others to beat them. And, beat them they did – flogging them severely before throwing them into jail with a guard watching them.
That’s where the unexpected takes place.
Beaten, bruised, weary, and stuck in the stocks. Imprisoned. Guarded. When this is your scenario, I doubt most of us would immediately do what Paul and Silas did: pray and sing hymns. That’s what they did, though. They worshiped the Lord while in the stocks. They prayed and sang His praises inside prison walls.
Should I someday face great difficulty—persecution, even—I pray I, too, would still be praying and singing.
PRAYER: “Lord, help me to sing Your praises no matter what I face.”
TOMORROW’S READING: 1 Samuel 25; 1 Chronicles 7; Acts 17