Sing Your Heart Out Baby!  Devotional #24

 

 

            I love to sing!  My parents tell me that when I was a baby I hummed along with the commercials from the television.  My grandmother told me that there was one time as a toddler I stopped in the middle of the street to dance along with the music that was blaring from a boom-box.  As long as I can remember I have always loved music.  I sang in choirs while in school and in the church.  As a kid I would sing with my hairbrush in hand as my microphone and my mirror as my audience.  I’d belt it out like if I were really giving a concert!  What an imagination!

            Now that I’m married with three children singing is still a part of my life but only in the van as I’m chauffeuring the kids around or while I’m cleaning the house.  I love to praise the Lord through song.  How about you my dear friend?  Do you praise the Lord through song?  How about when times are rough?  That is when my praise time goes up.   

            There’s an example in the Bible of praising the Lord in the harshest of conditions.  Paul and Silas were on the mission field.  They were on their way to a place of prayer when they were confronted with a situation.  Throughout their whole ordeal they remained faithful and praised the Lord even though they were in a whole heap of trouble!  Their troubles started when they met a young girl who was a slave.  She had an evil spirit and it was because of the evil spirit her owners used her as a fortune-teller.  She made a lot of money for her owners, which is why they were very upset with what happened next. 

            Acts 16:17-18, “She followed Paul and the rest of us, shouting, ‘“These men are servants of the Most High God, who are telling you the way to be saved.”’ She kept this up for many days. Finally Paul became so annoyed that he turned around and said to the spirit, ‘“In the name of Jesus Christ I command you to come out of her!”’ At that moment the spirit left her.” (NIV) Even though the evil spirit was telling the truth Paul did not want the people to associate anything evil with Jesus.  There was to be no confusion, Jesus has absolutely nothing to do with evil.  When the evil spirit left this girl her ability to do fortune-telling was over.  The owners were not happy with this loss of easy money so they had Paul and Silas beaten and thrown in jail. 

            Acts 16:25-26, “Along about midnight, Paul and Silas were at prayer and singing a robust hymn to God. The other prisoners couldn’t believe their ears. Then, without warning, a huge earthquake! The jailhouse tottered, every door flew open, all the prisoners were loose.” (MSG)  They were singing a “robust hymn” and praying.  Did you catch how they sung?  “Robust” means strong determination. They were singing their hearts out!  They were not wallowing in their situation.  They were in the inner jail where they could be constantly watched and their feet were in stocks (Acts 16:24).  They weren’t going anywhere which was how the worst of criminals were treated.  But even though they were in this situation they were living what Paul penned in Philippians 4:11b, “I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances.” 

            After the earthquake Paul and Silas did not run away even though they had the opportunity to.  Not only did they not run away, none of the prisoners ran away.  Under Roman rule the jailer would have been killed if any of the prisoners had run away.  He was about to kill himself when Paul shouted out to him that they were all there.  It was then that the jailer fell to his feet and asked what he needed to do to be saved.  Not only did Paul and Silas share the Gospel of Jesus Christ with the jailer and with his whole household (family and servants).  They were all saved that night.  It was due to their faithfulness in the harshest of conditions that inspired the jailer and his family and servants to accept the Lord as their Savior. 

             It is what you do with the circumstances of your life that speak the loudest to the people around you.  Even though Paul and Silas were stripped naked, flogged and were put in stocks found in the center cell.  The earthquake was God’s answer to their prayer request.  They needed something huge to happen and it did.  The answer was not to run away but to stay and minister to the jailer and his family. 

            Praise the Lord with all your heart in the good times and in the bad times.  People are watching to see how you deal with the circumstances of life.  Just like all of the prisoners and the jailer were watching Paul and Silas.  When the earthquake happened the jailer believed that this was the answer to the prayers from Paul and Silas’ God.  What he didn’t know was that God had something in store for him through Paul and Silas.  What we do not know is what God has in store for others through us.  So sing baby!  Sing praises unto the Lord with prayer and thanksgiving.

 

Thank you for reading this devotional.  My dear friend, I appreciate you and am praying for you.  God bless you! 

*If you would like to read this same devotional in Spanish or know of someone that would please visit my Spanish blog at www.ministerioreflejandolaverdad.blogspot.com