Good Morning.
It is going to be like summer today and in coming days here in New York, the Empire State - hazy, hot, and humid. The rhododendron in front of my study at the parsonage are in full bloom in glorious, magnificent, and marvelous,colors. "A thing of beauty is joy forever". One of my friends uses the devotional, "Streams in the Desert'. I like to speak of songs in the night, because the Lord of Joy gives us songs in the night. When it is dark and bleak,when the situation at hand is stark and suffocating, the Lord of Light breaks into our hearts, bringing in songs in the night.
In Acts 16, Paul and Silas were in a prison cell in Philippi. I encourage you to read the entire chapter yourself, but here's an overview. Paul had cast out a demon from a fortune-teller. Her master was very displeased because she lost the revenue from her ability to predict the future, so he had Paul and Silas arrested. Acts 16:22 says, “A mob quickly formed against Paul and Silas, and the city officials ordered them stripped and beaten with wooden rods. They were severely beaten, and then they were thrown into prison. The jailer was ordered to make sure they didn’t escape. So he took no chances but put them into the inner dungeon and clamped their feet in the stocks.” When we read a story like this, and it’s tough to put ourselves in their shoes and fully understand their plight. We all have had bad days before, but probably nothing comparable to this. Paul and Silas must have been emotionally and physically drained, and spiritually spent. They were drained to the last drop, with nothing left to give. Their backs were bleeding from their beating. They were black and blue all over. They must have been angry. Then, to top it off, they landed in the maximum security cell in stocks! It just doesn’t get much worse than that, and that’s why the next verse is so amazing. It says, “Around midnight, Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the other prisoners were listening.” From personal experience I know that when I get into a spiritual or emotional slump, it’s usually because I have zoned in on a problem, fixing my mind, heart, and energies on something that is wrong. That is the wrong place for my focus. Nine times out of ten, the solution is looming out there, ready for me to get some right perspective. Sometimes we all need to look at the big picture. Worshipping means taking our eyes off of our external circumstances and focusing on God. When we stop focusing on what’s wrong with us or with our circumstances, we can start to focus on God. Paul and Silas could have looked inward and complained about their circumstances. . . God, we cast out a demon and this is what we get? We’re on a missionary journey and we get beaten and thrown in jail? Instead of you “watching our back”, our backs are bleeding from a beating! They could have complained forever, but they made a choice to worship God despite their external circumstances. Worship restores spiritual equilibrium and helps you regain your perspective. It enables you to find something right to praise God about even when everything seems to be going wrong. Worship resetting our focus on the big picture, on the fact that two thousand years ago, Jesus died on the cross to pay the penalty for our sin. It’s refocusing on the fact that God loves us when we least expect it and least deserve it. It’s refocusing on the fact that God is going to take us where God wants us to go. It’s refocusing on the fact that we have eternity with God to look forward to, in a place where there is no mourning, sorrow, or pain. Worship is refocusing on the fundamentals of our faith.
When we refocus and look at God's big picture, He restores the joy of our salvation. We then regain our spiritual equilibrium. Nothing is more difficult than praising God when everything seems to be going wrong, but one of the purest forms of worship is praising God when we don’t feel like it, because it shows God that our worship is not based on circumstances. Our worship is then based on the character of God, not on our human condition. Oliver Wendell Holmes said, "there are two kinds of simplicity: simplicity on the near-side of complexity and simplicity on the far-side of complexity". In the same sense, there is worship on the near-side of suffering and worship on the far-side of suffering. Worship on the far-side of suffering has greater intensity and purity. It requires rising above our circumstances. George Bernhard Shaw said, “People are always blaming their circumstances for what they are. I don’t believe in circumstances. The people who get on in this world are the people who get up and look for the circumstances they want and if they can’t find them, make them.” One of the books I read in the 1970s was "Man’s Search for Meaning", by Victor Frankl. Frankl was a Holocaust survivor who wrote about his experiences in a Nazi concentration camp. Everything was taken away from the prisoners. They were stripped of their clothing, their photographs, and their personal belongings. Their captors even took away their names and gave them numbers. Frankl was number 119104. Everything physical thing was taken away. Frankl said, “Everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of human freedoms—to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances.” Paul and Silas were enchained in prison. Their bodies were chained, but you cannot chain the human spirit. What Victor Frankl discovered in the concentration camp is the same thing that Paul and Silas modeled two thousand years ago. Their bodies were chained, but their spirits soared. This is one audio track I would love to have heard. I wish we had the track of Paul and Silas singing. There is something so awesome about worshipping God at the top of your voice without caring how it sounds. Paul and Silas sang with a conviction that caused their fellow prisoners to listen. They praised God at the top of their voices! And that choice to worship set off a chain reaction. Albert Einstein once said, “You can’t solve a problem on the level it was created.” Problems created on a human plane are solved on a supernatural plane. That’s what happens when we worship God. It changes the spiritual atmosphere.
God sent an earthquake, opened all of the doors, and loosed their bonds. Paul could never have planned this miraculous jailbreak. The prisoners were set free, but they did not leave! The jailer who was about to kill himself because of the escape was saved that night, and his entire family is baptized in the middle of the night. (You can’t script that kind of thing.)
We cannot plan miracles, but when we worship God in the worst of circumstances we never know what is going to happen. Worship sets the stage for miracles! Worship causes spiritual earthquakes that can change the landscape of our lives. Worship may not change our circumstances, but it will change our lives. Worship is the way we stay positive in negative circumstances. It’s not a placebo! It’s reality. No matter how bad things get, as followers of Christ, we have eternity in heaven to look forward to! Our pain is real, but so is heaven. The good news is that this reality is temporary, but the reality of heaven lasts forever! Paul gave some priceless advice in Philippians 4:8 He said, “Whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things.” True worshippers always finds reason to praise God because they are looking for reasons to praise God. It was worship that set Paul and Silas free physically, and it is worship that will set us free emotionally and spiritually. Worship sets off a chain reaction. The prison doors fly open. Our chains fall off. Let us stop focusing on what’s wrong about us or our circumstances, and let us begin focusing on worship of the Living Lord and witnessing for His grace and mercy.
In Him,
Brown
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q63Rg5AeUTM#
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