2022_03_16 Insight Post- Rusty Coram

  -   March 16, 2022

This week’s reading- Acts 15-16

Joy is a funny thing. Often it is a feeling that follows experiencing something we are glad about, like a promotion, birth of a child, being shown appreciation – you know what I mean. But for followers of Jesus, we have a source of joy that is not contingent on our circumstances. In fact, the joy we have access to is available in spite of difficult and painful situations. We see this in full relief in Acts 16, where we see Paul and Silas maliciously attacked in Philippi: “A mob quickly formed against Paul and Silas, and the city officials ordered them stripped and beaten with wooden rods. ²³ They were severely beaten, and then they were thrown into prison. The jailer was ordered to make sure they didn’t escape. ²⁴ So the jailer put them into the inner dungeon and clamped their feet in the stocks. ²⁵ Around midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the other prisoners were listening.” Acts 16:22–25 (NLT)

The situation was a horrible injustice and lacked the required due process (see vs. 37) afforded Roman citizens. Paul and Silas could have sat there stewing on the unfair way they were treated, letting anger and bitterness take over – anyone could be tempted to do that! Instead, they both chose to keep their focus on God, knowing that He would work on their behalf, EVEN in the bleak and miserable situation they were in. Everyone from the prisoners to the guards heard their prayers and singing, and everyone also saw their trust being placed in Jesus. As a result, the jailer and his family even became followers of Christ, and the new church learned the surpassing value of trusting God no matter what comes our way.

Joy, true Christian joy, is the recognition that right here and right now, God is with us and that nothing can separate us from Him or prevent us from living out our full redemptive potential.

“Dear brothers and sisters, when troubles of any kind come your way, consider it an opportunity for great joy. ³ For you know that when your faith is tested, your endurance has a chance to grow. ⁴ So let it grow, for when your endurance is fully developed, you will be perfect and complete, needing nothing.” James 1:2–4 (NLT)