Focus

Let your soul take a moment of rest as you hear God’s word. Put your busy schedule, wandering mind, stressful thoughts, and burdened heart at the feet of the cross and open up to God’s voice as the Giver of Life tends your soul.

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Read

Acts 16:16-34 (NRSV)

One day, as we were going to the place of prayer, we met a slave-girl who had a spirit of divination and brought her owners a great deal of money by fortune-telling. While she followed Paul and us, she would cry out, “These men are slaves of the Most High God, who proclaim to you a way of salvation.” She kept doing this for many days. But Paul, very much annoyed, turned and said to the spirit, “I order you in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her.” And it came out that very hour.

But when her owners saw that their hope of making money was gone, they seized Paul and Silas and dragged them into the marketplace before the authorities. When they had brought them before the magistrates, they said, “These men are disturbing our city; they are Jews and are advocating customs that are not lawful for us as Romans to adopt or observe.” The crowd joined in attacking them, and the magistrates had them stripped of their clothing and ordered them to be beaten with rods. After they had given them a severe flogging, they threw them into prison and ordered the jailer to keep them securely. Following these instructions, he put them in the innermost cell and fastened their feet in the stocks.

About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the prisoners were listening to them. Suddenly there was an earthquake, so violent that the foundations of the prison were shaken; and immediately all the doors were opened and everyone’s chains were unfastened. When the jailer woke up and saw the prison doors wide open, he drew his sword and was about to kill himself, since he supposed that the prisoners had escaped. But Paul shouted in a loud voice, “Do not harm yourself, for we are all here.” The jailer called for lights, and rushing in, he fell down trembling before Paul and Silas. Then he brought them outside and said, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?” They answered, “Believe on the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved, you and your household.” They spoke the word of the Lord to him and to all who were in his house. At the same hour of the night he took them and washed their wounds; then he and his entire family were baptized without delay. He brought them up into the house and set food before them; and he and his entire household rejoiced that he had become a believer in God.

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Reflect

Have you ever spent any time behind bars? Or is your experience with imprisonment limited to driving by the jail? Many Christians today are behind bars, often as a result of persecution in their homeland. Others are imprisoned because they have broken the law. Still other believers have chosen prison out of protest against unjust laws or illegal actions by law enforcement.

People on the inside of lockup can sympathize with Paul and Silas in Acts 16. The two apostles were arrested because they had helped a slave girl, thus depriving her owners of income. The apostles were unjustly accused, severely flogged, and cast into the inner prison, where they shared the message of Jesus while awaiting the whims of the magistrates—or the intervention of God.

Should you and I be in prison? When we read the New Testament, we discover various reasons why we ought to be more than sympathetic with the apostles, more than willing to go to jail for the sake of the gospel. As you read the Bible, as you meditate on eVotions and other devotional materials, consider what you can do to help those behind bars for the sake of Christ—and if necessary, go to jail.

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Pray

God of all creation, we praise you for Paul, Silas, and all those believers who through the ages have suffered imprisonment for the sake of Christ. Be with all who have forfeited their freedom, justly, unjustly, or intentionally. Show us how to serve you by serving our brothers and sisters behind bars. Amen.

Go with God.