Sometimes we imagine that if we are following God and in His will for our lives that everything will always go smoothly. The truth is that God will work everything out for our good, but opposition and challenges remain part of the deal.
In Acts 16 we see that no sooner did they arrive in Macedonia, a demon-possessed slave girl who was also a fortune teller starts taunting them. This taunting goes on for days, until Paul could not take it anymore. He commands the demon to come out of her and she is instantly healed. As a result of this, Paul and Silas were dragged before judges, then they were stripped, beaten and thrown in prison. Imagine you are a guest in a town, and you are there to do good, but you end up accused, dragged around, stripped, beaten and thrown in prison……….. it’s enough to make most people leave the ministry.
God used these bizarre circumstances to get Paul and Silas to where they needed to be so that they could meet the man they had seen in the vision who had been calling for help. The strange thing about Paul and Silas is that they end up in prison, wounded, with their feet in stocks and yet they could choose to rejoice. This remains for me one of the greatest testimonies.
We too can go through a season where things are not working out for us while at the same time time we are serving God and in His will. It’s our response to the opposition that determines the next thing that will happen. In the midnight of your life, what will your response be? This is one of the wonderful things about being children of God. That circumstances do not need to dictate our state of mind and heart.
Acts 16:25 ‘Around midnight, as Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to the Lord…..’
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