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"At midnight Paul and Silas prayed, and sang praises unto God"
Acts 16:25
If we give the impression that being filled with the Spirit automatically places you where you never have any bafflements and conflicts, we surely are doing the wrong thing; but I cannot back away from this, that even though you face the grimmest kind of warfare in the living of the victorious life, God will keep you with a song....if you will let Him.
It does not mean a song of ecstasy. The Lord is not going to give you continual feelings of joy, so that you live in a perpetual bubble-bath of lovely emotions. Pauls back was hurting, and Silas back was smarting. They had been beaten to within an inch of their lives....yet they could sing.
A story is told about Billy Bray, a Christian Cornishman, who lived a wonderful happy life - some would say a kind of effervescent life; but it was real with him. He was always saying 'Praise the Lord' or 'Thank the Lord' or 'Hallelujah' or something like that. A a dry-as-dust church official looked at him one day and said 'Billy Bray you are always saying "Praise the Lord" or "Hallelujah!" What would you do if God were to lock you up in a barrel? Quick as a wink he replied "I should look for the bung hole and shout Glory through it"
Now the serious point of saying all of that is this, a lot of people think you only praise God when you feel like it. I would point out that if you know the real meaning of thanksgiving in the Christian life, you very often praise God on principle, not merely when your emotions would dictate it. You may not have any emotions, but you praise him because he deserves to be praised.
At midnight Paul and Silas sang praises.......Then this lovely touch, 'and the prisoners heard them'
It is your unconscious influence sometimes that does the most powerful things.
Acts 16:25
If we give the impression that being filled with the Spirit automatically places you where you never have any bafflements and conflicts, we surely are doing the wrong thing; but I cannot back away from this, that even though you face the grimmest kind of warfare in the living of the victorious life, God will keep you with a song....if you will let Him.
It does not mean a song of ecstasy. The Lord is not going to give you continual feelings of joy, so that you live in a perpetual bubble-bath of lovely emotions. Pauls back was hurting, and Silas back was smarting. They had been beaten to within an inch of their lives....yet they could sing.
A story is told about Billy Bray, a Christian Cornishman, who lived a wonderful happy life - some would say a kind of effervescent life; but it was real with him. He was always saying 'Praise the Lord' or 'Thank the Lord' or 'Hallelujah' or something like that. A a dry-as-dust church official looked at him one day and said 'Billy Bray you are always saying "Praise the Lord" or "Hallelujah!" What would you do if God were to lock you up in a barrel? Quick as a wink he replied "I should look for the bung hole and shout Glory through it"
Now the serious point of saying all of that is this, a lot of people think you only praise God when you feel like it. I would point out that if you know the real meaning of thanksgiving in the Christian life, you very often praise God on principle, not merely when your emotions would dictate it. You may not have any emotions, but you praise him because he deserves to be praised.
At midnight Paul and Silas sang praises.......Then this lovely touch, 'and the prisoners heard them'
It is your unconscious influence sometimes that does the most powerful things.
