Good Night Part 2
Acts 16:25, "About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the prisoners were listening to them."
As I continue to meditate on this passage in Acts, I have attempted to understand what it must have been like for Paul and Silas. How dark was their cell? How cold were they? How scared were they? How emboldened were they? What was their temptation(s)...those shifts in the soul that want to abrasively resist injustice by our own strength, our own plan, in our own flesh? Was it a temptation that allowed a past wound to to dig deeper? Was it a hidden secret...maybe the guilt for not being sure whether God could be trusted in the moment? I wonder how many times I have buried that one? What about you? God are you with me? Do you see what is going on here in my life? What were their temptations?
As I entered the cell with Paul and Silas I looked for Jesus. I wanted to see if he was there in the midst of their pain and suffering. I have not blogged in a while just because my heart was soaking it in and I was on my own journey. And during that process I was led to Luke 4:1-2. “And Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from Jordan (having been baptized) and was led by the Spirit in the wilderness for forty days, being tempted by the devil.”
Now we could unpack quite a bit here and eventually we may. But today, in simple there just a couple of overwhelmingly clear similarities between these two passages.
1)Jesus, Paul, and Silas, were filled with the Holy Spirit and led by the HS through their entire ministry.
2)The Holy Spirit lead each of them into a type of wilderness to be tempted at a very weak moment in their lives.
So, on the cusp of Christ's ministry to the world, his first step into the shadow of the Cross was a step out of the wilderness.
Like wise, Paul and Silas had been led by the Spirit to the exact place where they were beaten and thrown in jail. Earlier in Acts 16, as Paul and Silas taught the gospel, the Holy Spirit had opened Lydia’s eyes to see the truth of who Jesus and her entire household came to Christ. Leading up to their beating and imprisonment, Paul called out a demon from a slave girl. Paul and Silas were being used to demonstrate God's power. And yet, here they were down in the pit. And in their hearts and heads they must have been tempted to abrasively resist the injustice. Tempted to withdrawal and give up. Tempted to stew in bitterness and self righteousness. That is the crazy thing about being locked up. There are only so many ways you can rebel. The battle is internal. But, so is the redemption. So, the power of the Holy Spirit is unmistakably present in you. In your wilderness. In your inner cell.
The more I hung out in that cell with Paul and Silas, the less and less I saw the darkness. The less I felt the cold. The pain and suffering in the darkness helped me see the cross more clearly. The temptations were very real and so overwhelming I had no choice but to call on him to rescue me. And he was there. The attempt to subvert God’s plan in Acts 16 was unraveling. And so it is in my life too. Light was beaming into the darkness. Jesus was there! They sang songs in the night! Are you singing songs in your night? May the Spirit of the living God be with you today. Jesus is in your darkness.
Acts 16:25 About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the prisoners were listening to them.
