Jailhouse Rock
This week I’m going to do something a little different. Since Jason and I will be out of town again on another mission conference, I’ve decided to share with you one of my favorite chapters from my book, He’s Still Working Miracles. The chapter is divided into eight sections, so over the course of the next eight days, I’ll share a single section as the day’s devotion. Enjoy!
“And it came to pass, as we went to prayer, a certain damsel possessed with a spirit of divination met us, which brought her masters much gain by soothsaying: The same followed Paul and us, and cried, saying, These men are the servants of the most high God, which shew unto us the way of salvation. And this did she many days. But Paul, being grieved, turned and said to the spirit, I command thee in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her. And he came out the same hour. And when her masters saw that the hope of their gains was gone, they caught Paul and Silas, and drew them into the marketplace unto the rulers, And brought them to the magistrates, saying, These men, being Jews, do exceedingly trouble our city, And teach customs, which are not lawful for us to receive, neither to observe, being Romans. And the multitude rose up together against them: and the magistrates rent off their clothes, and commanded to beat them. And when they had laid many stripes upon them, they cast them into prison, charging the jailor to keep them safely: Who, having received such a charge, thrust them into the inner prison, and made their feet fast in the stocks. And at midnight Paul and Silas prayed, and sang praises unto God: and the prisoners heard 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 every one’s bands were loosed. And the keeper of the prison awaking out of his sleep, and seeing the prison doors open, he drew out his sword, and would have killed himself, supposing that the prisoners had been fled. But Paul cried with a loud voice, saying, Do thyself no harm: for we are all here. Then he called for a light, and sprang in, and came trembling, and fell down before Paul and Silas, And brought them out, and said, Sirs, what must I do to be saved? And they said, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house. And they spake unto him the word of the Lord, and to all that were in his house. And he took them the same hour of the night, and washed their stripes; and was baptized, he and all his, straightway. And when he had brought them into his house, he set meat before them, and rejoiced, believing in God with all his house. ”
As Christians, it sometimes seems like the harder we try to serve God, the more trouble arises. But if you think about it, doesn't that only make sense? If we're following the Lord's will and doing what He's asked of us, we can be assured Satan will fight us every step of the way. Why does he need to waste his time and effort on those who aren't serving? They're already right where he wants them. No, he has a different target. He wants to distract those who are faithful. He wants to discourage those who are striving to do right. He wants to defeat those who are heeding the voice of God. I Peter 5:8 cautions us, Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour.
Just before writing this chapter, he attacked me with a vengeance. I had taken my computer to church on Sunday morning to record my Sunday school lesson as usual. After the lesson, I shut my computer down, placed it in its bag, and carried it home. When I went to set the computer up that evening, however, I was dismayed to discover that it would not boot up. Yes, my computer that had been running smoothly that very morning was totally uncooperative. After a week of trying different things to correct the problem, we finally determined that the only solution was to wipe the computer clean and start from scratch. Thankfully, I was able to recover my documents and programs before wiping the system clean. But still, the computer crash cost a lot of time and effort.
During that overwhelming process, I had to keep reminding myself that all things work together for good to those who love God. I had to remind myself that God is not cruel or unkind. When I wanted to complain, "Lord, I'm trying to serve You. Why would You allow this to happen? Why are You making it more difficult for me to do Your will?" the Lord reminded me that all suffering has a purpose.
In our story in Acts, Paul and Silas were, no doubt, in the will of the Lord. Nevertheless, they became victim to the roaring lion himself. When Paul cast the demons out of the young girl, her masters were outraged. They had been using this poor girl to make money. I don't even like to imagine what they required of her beyond her ability to tell the future. We have every reason to believe they were cruel and offered her no hospitality. From the look of things, she was a prisoner, both of the demons and of her masters. But Paul, through the power of God, released her from her prison, knowing it could very well lead him to a prison of his own.
In their fury, these men lashed out at Paul and Silas. And to ensure they were properly punished, the masters went so far as to make false accusations against them. If there's one thing we can always count on, it's that the devil's crowd will mimic his behavior. The Bible says that Satan is the father of all lies, so it is only natural to conclude that his children would use lies to their advantage as well. That's not to say that Christians never lie. Sadly, great harm has often been inflicted by the lies of a Christian. Hopefully, those Christians felt remorse and made things right. These masters, on the other hand, were only too happy to stand by and watch as Paul and Silas were beaten and imprisoned for crimes they hadn't committed.
