Christ Church Daily Devotion March 7 2024

Paul and Silas encounter a slave girl possessed by a spirit who predicts the future. They cast out the spirit, angering the girl's owners who made money from her fortune-telling. The owners seize Paul and Silas, accusing them of causing trouble. They are beaten and thrown into jail, but instead of getting angry at God, they pray and sing hymns. Their faithfulness impacts the other prisoners, spreading the message of God's love and power. The lesson is to turn to God in prayer and singing when facing adversity. Welcome to Christchurch's Daily Devotion for March 7, 2024. Today we will be reading from Acts chapter 16 verses 16 through 25. Once when we were going to the place of prayer, we were met by a female slave who had a spirit by which she predicted the future. She earned a great deal of money for her owners by fortune-telling. She followed Paul and the rest of us, shouting, These men are servants of the Most High God who are telling you the way to be saved. She kept this up for many days. Finally, Paul became so annoyed that he turned around and said to the spirit, In the name of Jesus Christ, I command you to come out of her. At that moment, the spirit left her. When her owners realized that their hope of making money was gone, they seized Paul and Silas and dragged them into the marketplace to face the authorities. They brought them before the magistrates and said, These men are Jews and are throwing our city into an uproar by advocating customs unlawful for us Romans to accept or practice. The crowd joined in the attack against Paul and Silas, and the magistrates ordered them to be stripped and beaten with rods. After they had been severely flogged, they were thrown into prison, and the jailer was commanded to guard them carefully. When he received these orders, he put them in the inner cell and fastened their feet in the socks. About midnight, Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the other prisoners were listening to them. As a whole, we function very well praising God when things are going well in our lives. We state that we are grateful of all the blessings that he has given us, however, when adversity strikes, we start to get frustrated with God and ask why we are going through a rough time. In this reading for today, Paul did a good thing by casting out the demon that the lady possessed, but it was a loss of income for the slaves' owners. Paul and Silas were beaten and thrown into jail. What was their reaction? Did they get mad at God and question his love? No. They started praying and singing in the jail. The impact on the other prisoners was astounding. That got me thinking about prayer and God's plan. What we think on the inside can affect the way we deal with situations on the outside. We see Paul and Silas overflowing with the peace of God, even though they had been severely beaten, put in stocks, and imprisoned for an undetermined amount of time. Through them, the other prisoners were hearing about the amazing love and power of God. God used their faithfulness to share with others who had not heard of Jesus. Your personal worship option today is, Lord, when things go wrong in our lives, guide us to turn to you in prayer and singing so that others will come to know the One who has opened the way to abundant and eternal life. Amen.