STUCK!

I love how Acts 16:16 begins with Paul explaining that there was a time when he and Silas were going to prayer. You can imagine the next verse explaining that they were showered with blessings from God because they were going to prayer! Or during their great prayer service, lives were changed and people were saved! However this isn't the case. They meet a girl and she begins to mock them. This grieves Paul and so he delivers of the spirit that was in her and he continues on his way. Oh! Now here comes the blessing!! Surely they were doing the Lord's will as they delivered the girl from the spirit.

The problem was, was that this girl made money through this spirit and the people who she worked for were now not happy! In this moment there were no blessings for Paul and Silas, but they were soon arrested and put into prison. Not only that they were beaten and whipped! At some point my mind is waiting for the angel to Michael to come, sword held tightly in his hand to free Paul and Silas from such a travesty. Again, this is not the case...

Scripture says Paul and Silas were taken to the 'inner prison'. The 'inner prison' was a place where there was no light. It was damp. It was cold. Placed in stocks they were STUCK!

Life can too often be like this! Stuck! And often we feel as if we are doing God's will happily trudging to a place of prayer, a place of worship or maybe even on our way to help someone and we end up Stuck! Recently I've felt tired of being Stuck! That inner feeling of hopelessness, never going to move from a certain place. I might not necessarily be on my way to anywhere, but inside I am feeling STUCK! Our environment can seem dark! People can seem cold! Words of encouragement can seem damp! And our perspective is STUCK! But in this place God has revealed something. GOD WANTS TO INCREASE OUR CAPACITY TO BELIEVE!

In their place of imprisonment, Paul and Silas aren't seen wallowing and singing woe is me. Instead they begin to worship God! I can imagine them singing (8) My shackles are gone, my spirit free, Oh praise Lord, He's lifted me. My sins are forgiven and now I am free! Oh praise the Lord, my shackles are gone, my spirit is free! (8) Praising God contradicted their situation, but they knew they were free. Though stuck, they were really free! In this place of feeling STUCK! it is vital that we worship God- because as we worship God, we are worshipping Him for who He is and looking beyond our situation and looking to the truth that God can deliver us from every situation.

In Daniel 11:32 it says that those who know their God will carry out great exploits. 2 Timothy 1:12 says I know in Whom I have believed. In our moments of feeling Stuck! Do we know God? Do we believe God? Do we trust that the God who brought crowds of people across seas, who sent His only Son that we may have life, is able to rescue us from our Stuck! situations? 

These Stuck! situations are an opportunity for our faith to grow! God has a lot of things for us, but unless we believe, how can we carry some of these things out? In these situations we learn to trust and depend on God? Take Mary for example. An angel appears to her and tells her that she is going to give birth to the Saviour of the world. Now I don't know about you, but I am not sure I could handle that. Not only carrying the Saviour of the world, but believing God's promise could get me through the stares from people and the possible stoning, for in that culture Mary's pregnancy would be wrong. But Mary had the capacity to believe! Mary replies, 'May it be to me as you have said.' 

God has great things for us to do here, but will we believe?
MARK 9:23