Singing at Midnight

“About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the other prisoners were listening to them.” — Acts 16:25

In Philippi, some men got Paul and Silas into trouble. They dragged them in front of the city leaders and accused them of stirring up the city. A crowd joined in, and the leaders ordered that Paul and Silas be beaten. Then they were thrown into prison.

The jailer put them in the innermost cell, the darkest and most secure part of the prison, and locked their feet into wooden stocks so they couldn’t move.

Paul and Silas were hurting. They were sore from the beating. They were locked in the dark. They had done nothing wrong.

And what were they doing at midnight?

They were praying and singing hymns to God! And all the other prisoners were listening.

Suddenly there was a great earthquake! The whole prison shook, right down to its foundations. At once all the prison doors flew open, and everybody’s chains came loose!

The jailer woke up. When he saw the prison doors standing open, he thought all the prisoners had escaped. He knew he would be punished terribly. In his fear, he was about to kill himself with his sword.

But Paul shouted, “Don’t hurt yourself! We are all here!”

Nobody had run away!

The jailer called for lights and rushed in. He fell down, trembling, in front of Paul and Silas. Then he brought them out and asked, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?”

“Believe in the Lord Jesus,” they said, “and you will be saved, you and your household.”

Then they told the jailer and everyone in his house all about Jesus.

That very hour of the night, the jailer washed the wounds on Paul and Silas’s backs. And straight away, he and his whole family were baptised. Then he took them into his house and gave them a meal. He and all his family were filled with joy, because they had come to believe in God.

Paul and Silas could have complained in that prison. They could have been angry and bitter. Instead they sang to God. And because they did, a jailer and his whole family came to know Jesus.

When things are hard, we can still praise God. And sometimes it’s in the hardest places that other people are listening most closely.

Read it in your Bible: Acts 16:16–34

Dear God, help me to praise you even when things are hard. Thank you that anyone can be saved by believing in Jesus. Amen.