The Mirror of the Word by C.E. White can be purchased here: https://www.amazon.com/Mirror-Word-Devotions-Reveal-Refine/dp/B0DFZS83C7  To learn more about this author and other words, visit https://cewhitebooks.com/

“Now about midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns of praise 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 chains were unfastened.”

—Acts 16:25–26

Paul and Silas had been attacked by crowds, stripped, beaten with rods, and chained in the innermost cell. Yet they sang.

Can we imagine ourselves there? The other prisoners watched Paul and Silas hauled in past all the other cells—they were bloody, bruised, and maybe still naked. Yet they sang.

The prisoners must’ve listened with confusion, shock, and not just a little curiosity.

And then the miracle came—all the doors opened, and all the chains came loose. Yet in Paul and Silas’s faithfulness and hope, they convinced the other prisoners to stay right where they were.

When we pray and praise in the midst of a trial, bonds are broken and chains loosed, but sometimes, prison is where we’re meant to be. Many came to salvation because Paul, Silas, and the other prisoners stayed there.

It might look like we’re defeated and in prison, but as long as we’re in Christ, no circumstance can be bigger than his purpose. No circumstance. Not Paul and Silas’s bloody, bruised bodies. Not an illness, financial troubles, a struggling marriage, or a lagging career.

What song are we singing when we’re mistreated and all the circumstances seem against us? Is it despairing self–pity? Vengeful anger? Or is it prayer and praise that will bring freedom and salvation to both the jailed and the jailer?

Let’s praise him in the midst of our trials and be prepared to see him work.

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