July 14
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“About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the other prisoners were listening to them. Suddenly there was such a violent earthquake that the foundations of the prison were shaken. At once all the prison doors flew open, and everyone’s chains came loose. The jailer woke up, and when he saw the prison doors open, he drew his sword and was about to kill himself because he thought the prisoners had escaped. But Paul shouted, ‘Don’t harm yourself! We are all here!'” (Acts 16:25-28, NIV)

It is axiomatic: When praises to God go up, the power of God comes down.

This is illustrated by today’s scripture. Even in the midst of their pain, and the apparent wrongness of their situation (they were doing a good thing, remember; for God, no less); Paul and Silas found reasons to pray and to sing!

Allow your prayer and your praises to God to rise in every circumstance, and you will see the power of God arrive and transform sorrow into joy.

Remember: When praises go up; power comes down.  – Luther

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July 13
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“After they had been severely flogged, they were thrown into prison, and the jailer was commanded to guard them carefully. When he received these orders, he put them in the inner cell and fastened their feet in the stocks. About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the other prisoners were listening to them.” (Acts 16:23-25, NIV)

D. L. Moody (1837-1899), the noted 19th Century evangelist, said: “Out of 100 men, one will read the Bible, the other 99 will read the Christian.”

His words are as true today as when Moody spoke them more than 100 years ago; or as they were nearly 2,000 years ago when Paul and Silas were thrown — bloody and sore from a severe beating — into prison, and their feet were put into the stocks. Theirs was a utterly miserable and hopeless situation, but Silas and Paul did not allow an adverse situation to provoke from them an adverse response.  They responded by praying and singing hymns to God!

Then, as now, the world watches the Christian in his or her adversity. Will he curse or will he bless?  Will she complain or will she encourage?

As Moody said, only one person in 100 will have read the God’s word.  When the other 99 read you — the representative of God nearest to them — what do they learn?  – Luther

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July 11
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“He  (Job) said, ‘Naked I came from my mother, and naked I will return. The LORD has given, and the LORD has taken away! May the name of the LORD be praised.'” (Job 1:21, God’s Word Translation)

Shame on us if we need to fall as low as Job fell before we begin to comprehend the fact of our “nakedness.”

Everything we acquire during our lifetime is borrowed.  Our children: Borrowed.  Our health: Borrowed.  The air we breath: Borrowed (at a rate of approximately 14 breaths per minute). Even our names are borrowed from others, and shared with other people we’ve not even met (try “Googling” your name and see how many other people there are with the same name!).

We err when we think that we may become owners of anything.  On the contrary, many times, “things” own us!

Freedom comes when we begin to view ourselves as stewards of God’s gifts to us — not as owners.  As borrowers, rather than keepers.

All of God’s gifts are entrusted to us to risk for the sake of the Kingdom of Heaven.  It is God’s to give; it is God’s to risk; it is God’s to lose; it is God’s to increase for His glory.

We are His agents; channels of His mercy and grace.  We only fail when we think of God’s gifts as our own to hoard, or to use for our own benefit.  – Luther

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