Fearlessly Courageous
Desk of Dennis Piller
2 19 2024

NO Audio Version today

Today we will talk about an obscure person in the bible who portrays for us, a true champion and warrior of faith and an advocate of prayer and worship. Today I would like to speak to that obstruction in your life that has been a focus of your prayers, or this thorn in your side that won’t go away. (that could be a person). Or this desperate need that you have that just won’t come to fruition no matter what you do. Acts was written by Luke, and his purpose was to show us how the gospel was being spread which tells the story of how the church was growing in leaps and bounds.

I would encourage you to read Acts 16 25-34 It is a story of a miscarriage of justice.
2 men bucked the system and got into someone’s pocketbook and all hell broke loose.
They were seized for casting out a demon from a woman who satan had given insight into forecasting some events and her owners lost their livelihood. They were seized, stripped, severely beaten with wooden rods by the mob, and put in a dungeon. They were fastened in the inner prison with their feet in stocks. Cold, damp, rat-infested, bleeding, swollen, hurting. One can only imagine that they must have been asking why. Why aren’t you with me Jesus? This is not what I signed up for.
Even by worldly standards, this is unjust and brutally unfair. But Silas and Paul did not do that.
The first thing they did was turn to God. Not in a tone of accusation or contempt but in prayer. Look at the text, “about midnight they were praying” They weren’t curled up in a ball just wanting relief from a pulsating and throbbing body that was full of welts, broken skin, lacerations that were bleeding… just wanting to sleep from exhaustion, waiting for morning to feel a little better.
NO. They were speaking to God.

The first thing they did, in a worst-case scenario, was turn to God in prayer.
Why is it, too often, that we do the other as I described? Why me? Why now? This isn’t fair? Anger! Contempt! Lashing out at someone! Certainly not making anything better. Whining. We just throw emotional fuel on a raging fire. But Silas and Paul said we need to speak with God in prayer. Even this morning, as I am writing this I got a financial setback regarding something I had high hopes for.
I am powerless. The decision is not mine. Yes, I had legitimate hopes but they were just lost in the natural. The first tendency is dismay. Oh Lord, I was really counting on that income. I needed that! But if you stop here and consider this verse, might you hear Paul encouraging Silas? “We need to pray!”. WHAT? Pray? One might say. It’s a little too late for that, isn’t it? We need a key man to get out of here! Pray?
But when you are standing next to a man of faith like Paul, you must be bolstered by his faith and resolve to still reach out in the darkest of hours for comfort, peace, and calm amid the storm.
Come On Silas…don’t get lost in the testing. Don’t lose your focus on why we are here. If we must suffer a little for the Gospel…what an honor to bear that for Jesus. We will not offer up our shouts of anger or profanity but instead, we lay our trial at his feet as a sacrifice of our love for him. 1 Peter 5:10 says “After you have suffered a little while, the God of all grace, who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ, will himself restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish you”

So one might say, I am not Paul. I don’t have that kind of faith. Instead, I would encourage you today to do something about that. Draw closer to a person of God near you. If you don’t have one join a bible study or small group of others who are seeking to be closer to god like you. (Don’t just sit there and do nothing. Don’t just justify that by some failure in the past.) Two are better than one and a three-stranded cord is not easily broken. When we align ourselves with other people of faith, we are strengthened in our faith, our calm, our trust, our walk, and our commitment to walk and talk with God in prayer. That was the design and the model Jesus gave us.

The second thing Silas and Paul did was Trust God and his promises.
“But at midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the prisoners were listening to them”. If that isn’t the ultimate trust. Singing hymns. I can hear Paul saying, come on Silas louder. “Amazing Grace how sweet the sound, that saved a wretch like me!” This wasn’t the sanctuary of their church or home, this was in the worst part of town, in the worst of scenarios, in the midst of the crudest, vilest, and evil of people who were trying to sleep and it said they listened to the example of these severely beaten men. Worshiping God.
What a testimony. What an example of how Great there God was.

Whining never won a battle. Who wants to stand with a whiner?
How often do we whine? Did whining ever heal anything and was it ever the answer to anything?
The Bible says everywhere. It is not. The Bible is full of examples of whiners.
All those extra years in the desert because they couldn’t stop whining.
Silas and Paul showed us to worship and not whine. Honestly, worship is the best anecdote for whining. It will get you out of the doldrums and help you focus on the ONLY ONE who can help you.
Worship clearly changes things. That change begins in me and you. Whining drags you further down but worship lifts you up. It builds you up and is in itself the connection and conversation with God that he rewards with peace, hope, and joy…even in the midst of the firestorm.
To all of these men and the jailer, worship was a powerful witness. This was not about Silas and Paul.
It is not about you! It is never about us!
Are you praying for God to get you out of something or inviting him into your situation?
Wednesday Part 2

Tauren Wells. Citizen of Heaven