It happened that as we were
going to the place of prayer, a slave-girl having a spirit of divination met
us, who was bringing her masters much profit by fortune-telling. Following
after Paul and us, she kept crying out, saying, "These men are
bond-servants of the Most High God, who are proclaiming to you the way of
salvation." She continued doing this for many days. But Paul was greatly
annoyed, and turned and said to the spirit, "I command you in the name of
Jesus Christ to come out of her!" And it came out at that very moment. But
when her masters saw that their hope of profit was gone, they seized Paul and
Silas and dragged them into the market place before the authorities, and when
they had brought them to the chief magistrates, they said, "These men are
throwing our city into confusion, being Jews, and are proclaiming customs which
it is not lawful for us to accept or to observe, being Romans." The crowd
rose up together against them, and the chief magistrates tore their robes off
them and proceeded to order them to be beaten with rods. When they had struck
them with many blows, they threw them into prison, commanding the jailer to
guard them securely; and he, having received such a command, threw them into
the inner prison and fastened their feet in the stocks. But about midnight Paul
and Silas were praying and singing hymns of praise to God, and the prisoners
were listening to them; and 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.(Acts 16:16-26)
From a practical aspect, this is one of the most obvious reasons Paul had such a successful career. Because he learned how to defeat stress, he was able to function successfully in some very stressful situations. In fact, he seemed to thrive in situations that would have left many people immobilized with anxiety, anger, or discouragement. Other problems along the way? Try being stoned, scourged (five times), and being beaten with fists, rods and words. He’d been scored, chased, scandalized and slandered. The apostle Paul is the New Testament’s version of an “unsinkable Molly Brown.” As was the case for the Titanic’s most famous survivor, Paul simply refused to go down with the ship … literally. Three times Paul was shipwrecked, and he once spent a full day – “a night and a day,” as he puts it – on the open sea.
Never did Paul show his ability to stand apart
from the circumstances more clearly than the night he and Silas sang in the
bottom of that prison. Their backs were bleeding
and bruised, with feet in stocks probably made of worn-out crosses. A song, there? Then? The record shows that an earthquake set Paul
and Silas free that night, but their songs tell us they’d been set free long
before the chains fell loose.
From a practical aspect, this is one of the
most obvious reasons Paul had such a successful career. Because he learned how
to defeat stress, he was able to function successfully in some very stressful
situations. In fact, he seemed to thrive in situations that would have left
many people immobilized with anxiety, anger, or discouragement.
How often we hear the statement, “It’s not
what happens to you that makes or breaks you but how you handle it.” It seems Paul and Silas knew something of
that. Singing a song on a bed of
sickness, in an unemployment line, when friends have betrayed you or when life
seems to have dealt you a raw blow does not happen without some deep faith and
understanding.
Scripture to Claim:
Peace I leave with you; my peace I give
to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be
troubled, neither let them be afraid. John 14:27
