It must be the most profound example of grace and gratefulness ever recorded! (Acts 16:16-26)
Paul and Silas were still trying to get to a "place of prayer" and this loud fortune-teller slave girl started following them around. She's announcing, "These men are bond-servants of the Most High God, who are proclaiming to you the way of salvation." But these proclamations kept up for many days so that Paul was "greatly annoyed" and effectively cast out her evil spirit of divination.
Well, our fortune teller had been raking in loads of money for her masters and when these hucksters "saw that their hope of profit was gone, they seized Paul and Silas and dragged them into the market place before the authorities". Then the magistrates were falsely told that Paul and Silas were "proclaiming customs which it is not lawful for us to accept or to observe, being Romans". The authorities tore off their robes, rod-beat our guys profusely, and threw them in the dark inner prison with their feet fastened in stocks.
Whew! How terrible! But it does set up for us the most unforgettable picture of amazing grace. "About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns of praise to God, and the prisoners were listening to them." Can you believe such faith and love in this awful condition?
However, our God didn't stay quiet after such a profound offering of gratitude. "Suddenly there came a great earthquake, so that the foundations of the prison house were shaken; and immediately all the doors were opened and everyone's chains were unfastened."
"Yeah God"! It does so matter how we respond in difficult times. God loves to come and shake things up when we stay faith-full and praise His holy name.
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