Acts 16:25-40

Be still: Lord, I start today with you. I am thankful that you are with me. Come and have your way. Amen

Read: Acts 16:25-40

The jailer brought them into his house and set a meal before them; he was filled with joy because he had come to believe in God—he and his whole household. (v34)

Encounter: This is one of my favourite stories in the Bible. Paul and Silas, badly beaten, unfairly locked up in prison, yet there they are worshipping away, no doubt singing their favourite worship songs on repeat, and then — an earthquake occurs, doors fly open and they are free!

I’d be running for my life, ensuring I didn’t look back, but Paul and Silas begin to pastor the jailer; they share the Gospel, the jailer responds, and his whole family are baptised. It’s an 'only God could do this' moment.

The jailer, responding in faith to God, is ‘filled with joy.’ Reading those words always reminds me of an experience I had as a teenager. I remember one youth group weekend away when I was growing up, and I was filled with the Spirit. I had developed a misconception that to be filled with the Spirit meant crying - and I hadn’t cried for a long time; I was genuinely concerned. But in that moment, I remember joy like never before, grinning for what seemed an eternity, cheeks hurting - it was inexpressible; it can only have been God.

Only hours before the jailer was about to take his life, and now he is filled with a joy that is more than a passing feeling, but an abiding confidence in who God is.

Apply: What would it look like for you to live in the joy of the Lord today? Joy doesn’t mean pretending everything is okay. It means living with the confidence that God is with you, whatever today holds. Ask him to fill you afresh with that joy.

Devote: Thank you, God, that you turn lives around. Thank you that you care deeply about us. May your joy be our strength today.