Acts 16:25-40
I was re-thinking my post from yesterday, as to why Paul and Silas accepted the beatings from the Philippian magistrates instead of claiming their rights as Roman citizens. Then this morning I remembered the following verse, where the Lord is speaking to Ananias as He is sending him to visit Paul after Paul’s Damascus road experience: For I will show him how much he must suffer for the sake of my name. (Acts 9:16) So Paul knew that he would be suffering as he spoke about Jesus; maybe he was just accepting that beating in stride, knowing the Lord had told him it would be so.
Today I’m thinking about Lydia. It was on the way to their prayer meeting that Paul and Silas were apprehended, beaten and put in jail. So Lydia and her household and any other converts would have known about these events and very likely would have been praying for Paul and Silas – for their comfort and maybe even for their deliverance. So yes, Paul and Silas …were praying and singing hymns to God… (v. 25), but prayer on their behalf was probably being offered by the Lydia crowd. I can imagine the Lydia crowd rejoicing when Paul and Silas arrived at her house; I can hear them reporting about their own prayer time. And now as Paul and Silas have …encouraged them and departed (v. 40), the Lydia crowd can hold on to and regularly recall their prayer time and the Lord’s deliverance. Yes, I’m reading into the text thoughts that are not explicitly there, but there’s a point worth making: our prayers matter! Pray without ceasing! (1 Thessalonians 5:17)
Slava Bohu!