Praising His Faithfulness

Praising His Faithfulness
By: Pastor Mark White
 
“..if we are faithless, He remains faithful, for he cannot disown himself.” (2 Tim. 2:13)
 
When the Apostle Paul and Silas arrived in Philippi and began to proclaim the gospel.  The owners of a girl they helped became very angry and grabbed them - dragging them to the judges.  Falsely accused and withstanding an unfair trial, Paul and Silas were stripped, whipped, beaten, and thrown into jail.  The judges ordered the jail keeper to guard them carefully and they were chained to a cell in the middle of the prison. Certainly, the slave owner and the judges were sinning. They lied and punished them without a trial. But we are about to see that God had it all under control.  That God allowed this for a reason. God was about to take this terrible event and make it into something wonderful.
 
Around midnight, Paul and Silas were praying. They were also singing hymns to God and the other prisoners were listening to them.  Now prison is often a noisy place. Prisoners may complain about the food, scream to be set free, and possibly be yelled at by the Guards.

But I doubt that anyone has ever heard this particular sound before. At midnight, in the dark, Paul and Silas began to sing praises to the Lord.  I’m sure this caught the attention of everyone there. They knew that there was something different about these two prisoners because they praised God in the middle of their trouble.
 
We may wonder how Paul and Silas could sing at a time like that. Didn’t they know they were treated unfairly? I wonder if Paul was encouraged by the words of Jeremiah 1:12 “I am watching to see that my word is fulfilled.” So that in the middle of what seems like a setback, they could praise God because they had confidence that God will watch over His Word to perform it.
 
Later, Paul encourages Timothy and us, when we are going through difficult sessions,
with similar words “..if we are faithless, He remains faithful, for he cannot disown himself.”
(2 Tim. 2:13)