Zealot, Fugitive, Apostle - Acts 8:1-3; 9:1-31; 16:16-34
“Saul began to destroy the church. Going from house to house, he dragged off both men and women and put them in prison.” (Acts 8:3)
Right in the middle of his murderous campaign against the church, in a vision that knocked him off his high-horse, Saul met Jesus. Blinded for three days, as Christians placed hands on him and prayed, Saul learned to see again. It was like seeing in colour for the first time. Suddenly, everything made sense. He immediately began to preach that he had been blind before and now saw the truth that Jesus was in fact, LOVE, the very thing he’d been after his whole adult life. Inevitably, it wasn’t long before his own life was in danger.
A few years later, in Philippi, Paul and his mate Silas freed a slave girl whose owners manipulated her mental health for their profit. Withheld justice, they were stripped, beaten, severely flogged, and placed in a cold cell with no light or fresh air, feet fastened in to stocks. What would your response be in such circumstances? Anger? Self-pity? Paul and Silas’s response was to immediately launched in to such a great time of prayer and worship that all the other prisoners listened in.
Faith and joy in the midst of adversity always gets LOVE’s attention. LOVE sent an earthquake shattering every chain and opening every door. Rather than run for it, they exercised their freedom by choosing to remain in prison. The Jailer, on the other hand, was so enslaved by fear that he went to kill himself when he thought they’d escaped. They hadn’t. When you know LOVE, you know a freedom that the world knows nothing about.
Worship is a powerful weapon – in the face of difficulty it’s how we fight back. Try this: in prayer tell LOVE about the most difficult, frustrating or depressing things that you’re facing in life right now. However, as you recall such things before LOVE in prayer, don’t just moan about them. It’s healthy to express negative emotions such as anger or sadness in prayer. LOVE can handle it. However, after you’ve got those feelings off your chest, choose to start worshipping LOVE. Deliberately recall how LOVE has been faithful to you in the past. Find some things, any things, that you can thank LOVE for. Getting started is the hardest bit, but my own experience is that once you get going, you’ll find more and more things to worship and thank LOVE for. When you begin to pray about those frustrations anew, you’ll do so with perspective and faith.
“About midnight, Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the other prisoners were listening to them.” (Acts 16:25)
PS. It may help you to remember Hebrews 12:4-13, which says:
“4 In your struggle against sin, you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood. 5 And have you completely forgotten this word of encouragement that addresses you as a father addresses his son? It says,
‘My son, do not make light of the Lord’s discipline,
and do not lose heart when he rebukes you,
6 because the Lord disciplines the one he loves,
and he chastens everyone he accepts as his son.’[a]
7 Endure hardship as discipline; God is treating you as his children. For what children are not disciplined by their father? 8 If you are not disciplined – and everyone undergoes discipline – then you are not legitimate, not true sons and daughters at all. 9 Moreover, we have all had human fathers who disciplined us and we respected them for it. How much more should we submit to the Father of spirits and live! 10 They disciplined us for a little while as they thought best; but God disciplines us for our good, in order that we may share in his holiness. 11 No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it.
12 Therefore, strengthen your feeble arms and weak knees. 13 ‘Make level paths for your feet,’ so that the lame may not be disabled, but rather healed.”
