Amazing, God sent an earthquake to save a family.
• Yes, the foundations of the prison were shaken. Yes, the prison doors were all opened. Yes, the chains were all broken.
• But that was not the purpose of the earthquake. No one got away. Paul shouted, “We are all here!”
Even after their wounds were washed, even after a family was baptised (in the middle of the night), even after they had a wonderful meal in the jailer’s house, Paul and Silas was still around.
• They made no attempt to run. They do not want to. It will probably mean death for the jailor, having failed in his duty to secure the prison.
• They stayed until the next morning, the Bible says. Verse 35 “When it was daylight, the magistrates sent their officers to the jailer with the order: “Release those men.”
On hindsight, there was only one purpose why the earthquake occurred – not to free Paul and Silas, but to save the jailor and his family.
• God wants to save the jailor and his family. He has 2 obedient Christians. He just needs to create the opportunity.
• God works such miracles today. He opens doors – not physical prison doors, but the prison doors of the heart of those who are lost. He breaks down the chains, not physical chains, but the chains of sin that binds the hearts of men.
• God is concerned with a lost man and his family.
God wants to bring freedom to all men, not physical freedom as such but freedom from sin and death, freedom from condemnation and hell.
• And so He sent an earthquake – one that would not only shake the prison but the jailor. One that would not just change his prison but his life, and his family.
• Isn’t God good? Do you believe that He is that good?
If we care to believe it, then we will pray and expect God to work.
• “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved – you and your household.”
• It is a promise, but it is a promise that requires faith on your part. Do you really believe that God will do it?
Look at the attitude of Paul and Silas. Let’s back track a little.
• A girl who was possessed were following them and shouting at them for many days. Paul became so troubled that he turned around and commanded the spirit out. And then the crowd came against them, they were arrested, beaten and flogged.
• So by this time, I believe Paul and Silas were emotionally and physically spent, wounded and drained to the last drop. It just doesn’t get much worse than that.
• And that’s why this next verse is so amazing to me. Acts 16:25 says, “Around midnight, Paul and Silas were complaining about their circumstances.” That’s not what it says.
• It says, “Around midnight, Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the other prisoners were listening.”
Actually, they have no good reasons to be singing here.
• They were victims of the circumstances. They did nothing really wrong (which probably explains why the magistrates decided to release them the next day).
• In fact, Paul did a good thing – he healed a girl possessed by a fortune-telling spirit. But it angered her owners, who have been using her to earn their living. It really doesn’t matter what is ethically or morally correct, or what is good. You have just taken away my source of income.
• They were wrongly accused, beaten and flogged without trial, and thrown into the prison, for a “crime” they did not commit, without any recourse. Now squatting in the cell with your backs bleeding from the wounds.
And we find them singing. They showed no self-pity or resentment.
• They were singing because they were looking at things differently. They were men of faith. Their eyes were on God.
• That FOCUS changes everything. That perspective changes everything. What are you looking at? Who are you looking to?
When you get into a slump, emotionally or spiritually, it is usually because you zoomed in on a problem. You’re fixating on something that has gone bad. Day in and day out you are focusing all your attention on it.
• The solution is to zoom out and get the bigger picture. Look at the big picture.
That’s what the following college student did in writing this letter.
Dear Mom and Dad,
I have so much to tell you. Because of the fire in my dorm set off by student riots, I experienced temporary lung damage and had to go to the hospital.
While I was there, I fell in love with a colleague, and we have moved in together. I dropped out of school when I found out I was pregnant, and he got fired because of his drinking, so we’re going to move to Alaska, where we might get married after the birth of our baby.
Sign, your loving daughter
PS: None of this really happened, but I did flunk my chemistry class and I wanted to keep it in perspective.
That put things in a different perspective, right?
• You fail a chemistry exam but it’s not the end of the world. You have a break up but it’s not the end of the world.
• So how do you zoom out and get the right perspective – or a clearer perspective of things?
Worship! Learn from Paul and Silas. Direct your attention to God and worship Him.
• Worship is taking our eyes off of your circumstances and focus on God.
• We stop focusing on what’s wrong with us or with our circumstances. We start focus on what’s right with God.
If Paul and Silas focus on their circumstances, this is what we will get:
• God, we cast out a demon and this is what we get?
• We are doing your work, and we got beaten? We are on a missionary journey, and now locked up in prison? How can we move around now?
• Instead of “watching our back”, now our backs are bleeding from the beating!
But they made the choice to worship God, in spite of their situation.
• CHOOSE to worship God. You cannot change the circumstances, but you can change your attitude. So change your attitude, and choose to worship God.
Here’s what worship does.
• It restores spiritual insight. It helps you regain your perspective.
• It enables you to express the trust in a God who is present and in control.
Is it easy? No. We don’t feel like it, we feel sad and bitter. Sometimes, we are angry with God.
• Nothing is more difficult than praising God when everything seems to be going wrong.
• But one of the surest ways of getting you out of the pit is to praise God.
Author: “The purest form of worship is praising God even when you don’t feel like it because it shows God that your worship isn’t based on circumstances. Worship is based on the character of God.”
FREEDOM TO CHOOSE ONE’S ATTITUDE
There is a book called, “Man’s Search for Meaning” by Victor Frankl. Frankl was a Holocaust survivor who wrote about his experiences in a Nazi concentration camp.
Everything was taken away from these prisoners. They were stripped of their clothing, their pictures, and their personal belongings. They even took away their names and gave them numbers. Frankl was number 119,104.
Everything was taken away except one thing. Frankl said, “Everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of human freedoms—to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances.”
I’m absolutely convinced that the most important choice you make everyday is your attitude. Your internal attitudes are more important than your external circumstances. The outcome of your life will be determined by your outlook on life. If you have a critical or complaining spirit you’ll complain till the day you die. Your life will get worse and worse because you’ll accumulate more and more negative experiences.
But if you have a worshipful spirit life gets better and better. Why? Because you accumulate positive memories.
At the end of the day, one way or the other, your focus determines your reality!
God has given us this great gift called freedom. We have free choice.
• We are response-able. In other words, we have the ability to choose our response in any set of circumstances.
• Paul and Silas were in prison. Their bodies were chained. But you can’t chain the human spirit.
• That’s what Victor Frankl discovered in the concentration camp. That’s what Paul and Silas showed us 2000 years ago. They were chained, but their spirits were free to worship God.
Their worship set off a chain reaction. God acts in response to our worship.
• That’s what happens when we worship God. It changes the spiritual atmosphere. It charges the spiritual atmosphere. It changes your heart.
• The Lord speaks and acts when we worship Him.
You can’t script what just took place in the jail. You can’t plan miracles.
• When you worship God in the worst of circumstances, He works.
• Rom 8:28 “And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love Him, who have been called according to His purpose.”
Worship is the way we stay positive in negative circumstances.
• My pain is real, but so is God. My suffering is real, but so is heaven.
• The good news is that this reality is temporary, and that reality lasts forever!
Focus on what is right about God!
NEGATIVE SELF-TALK
One research indicates that the average person talks to himself or herself about 50,000 times a day. Any guess on what percentage of self-talk is negative? Research indicates that 80% of self-talk is negative.
We say negative things to ourselves. I’m not good enough. I’m not smart enough, I’m too slow. And, people don’t like me.
So here’s what happens: we let what’s wrong with us keep us from worshipping what’s right about God. We’re focused on the wrong reality.
PREMEDITATED COGNITIVE COMMITMENTS
In her book, Mindfulness, Ellen Langer says that all of us have “premeditated cognitive commitments.” Translation: we tend to see what we’re looking for.
A pessimist will always see something bad in a good situation and an optimist will always see something good in a bad situation.
Paul gives some priceless advice in Philippians 4:8. It’s a list of eight premeditated cognitive commitments. He says, “Whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things.”
A worshipper always finds something to praise God for because they’re looking for something to praise God for. Worship is a premeditated cognitive commitment based on ultimate reality.
Stop focusing on what’s wrong about you or your circumstances.
• Start focusing on what’s right about God.
BRONZE MEDALLISTS
There is a fascinating research study done by Vicki Medvec, a professor at Northwestern University. She studied Olympic medallists and she discovered that Bronze medallists were happier than Silver medallists. Here’s why.
Medvec found that Silver medallists tended to focus on how close they came to winning gold so they weren’t satisfied with silver. Bronze medallists tended to focus on how close they came to not winning a medal at all so they were just happy to be on the medal stand at all.
The study reveals a fascinating facet of human nature - your focus determines your reality.
• How we feel isn’t always determined by objective circumstances. If that was the case, Silver medallists would be happier than Bronze medallists because they had an objectively better result.
• A student who scored 350 points out of a total of 400, and tops his neighbourhood school, will feel extremely happy, but another student with the same score in a top school, feels extremely lousy for being the last in his class of top students.
Don’t look at the circumstances. Look to the One who controls the circumstances.
• Put your trust in the One who can open prison doors and break the chains.
• Focus right. Keep a gratitude journal this week. Find something everyday to be grateful for.
• It’s a spiritual discipline. Psalm 103:2 says, “Praise the Lord and forget not all his benefits.”
• In the words of the hymn: “Count your blessings, name them one by one, count your blessings, see what God hath done! Count your blessings, name them one by one, and it will surprise you what the Lord hath done.”
Paul and Silas weren’t too concerned about their own freedom. They were concerned about the jailor and his family.
• The jailor asked, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved.” Paul and Silas stayed to give him the answer of his life.
• Sharing the good news is all that really matters to them. God saves us so we can be an instrument for saving others.
• Write that down, God saves us so we can be an instrument for saving others.
• You can change someone’s life, if you care to believe it!
