As Paul did, can we sing when our lives seem shattered?
By Elizabeth Prata
In Acts 16, Paul was followed by a slave girl who made much money for her owner by telling fortunes. She kept hollering after Paul and his group, and vexed Paul very much. Finally he cast the demon out of her, and that was that.
Or not. For when her owners saw their means of gain was gone, they beat Paul. Magistrates threw him and Silas in jail. (Acts 16:19-24). Not just jail, but “inner prison”.
Inner prison in Rome was a dungeon below ground. Reeking and damp, wet, dripping with septic (since all excrement travels downwards), rats, gloomy darkness, and feet in stocks, immobile, bound, and tossed away with the door clanking shut.
Yet they sang.
About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God... (Acts 16:25).
The scene is often used as an example of how, having the Spirit, one can and should rise above physical circumstance. Peace that passes all understanding allows one to cast one’s eyes heavenward and sing His glories even while terrible things might be happening to you.
And it’s true.
But the boots on the ground is a bit harder to adjust to. Your child has been diagnosed with a fatal cancer. Your mother has Alzheimer’s. Your finances are at bankruptcy level and you’re in danger of losing your home. You live in a nation where Christians are persecuted and you’re actually in a dank jail for the Name, separated from your wife and not knowing where your children even are.
You might be thinking, ‘Yah, well, Paul had megadoses of the Spirit and he could do what I’m unable to do…’ or, ‘Well, it was Bible times, times were different then.’
When adversity hits me, I myself struggle to cast my eyes upward and retain the joy that is set before me, the joy that IS Christ. For me, it’s hard to find the good during the circumstance that’s happening. Afterward, I always praise God, for usually I see His working of grace in it. Even if that grace is presently hidden, I praise Him because I know it is there, through trust. But while it is happening? Harder.
The glory given to God and the circumstance itself being all of His grace was very uplifting to read in the Bible. We have the same Holy Spirit Paul did. It’s hard to sing, it’s difficult to praise God when it seems our entire life is collapsing, but remember, this life is not our life. First, it’s the Lord’s life. He can do with our life what He wishes, so that we may give Him glory. Second, it’s a temporary life. Our citizenship is in heaven. The Lord himself truly IS the peace that passes all understanding. All situations that happen are for His glory and our good. When things get down, cast your eyes up.
Immanuel, God with us. He truly is with us. In all circumstances.
