SCRIPTURE READING: ACTS 16: 16-39
FOCUS: “And at midnight Paul and Silas prayed, and sang praises unto God: and the prisoners heard them.” (Acts 16: 25)
MEMORY VERSE: “For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.” (Romans 10: 10)
When Paul and Silas were thrown into the prison, they were bound hands and feet; but at midnight, they prayed and sang praises unto God, and the prisoners heard them. Their hands and feet were tied, but their mouths were not tied, and they used their mouths to pray and sing praises to God. They refused to allow the chains on their hands and feet to extend to their mouths. They refused to allow the prison to silence them.
Friend, don’t allow the prison to silence you. Don’t allow whatever you are dealing with, to make you stop confessing and believing as you have always confessed and believed. Don’t allow your circumstances make you speak less of the God you serve. Don’t allow what happened to your hands to also happen to your mouth. Don’t allow your circumstances to silence you. Don’t allow your battles to silence you.
There is a grand design by the enemy to use a ‘prison situation’ to silence you. Whereas there may be chains on your hands and feet, the enemy wants you to choose to add your mouth to the chains. The enemy wants you to stop praying; the enemy wants you to stop the confession of faith; the enemy wants you to stop praising God; the enemy wants you to use the occasion of whatever has gone wrong, to choose silence.
Notice that Paul and Silas did not get released because they kept silent. They were released after they prayed and sang praises unto God to the extent that even prisoners heard them. It is an error to be silent in prison. It is an error to stop speaking the very words that have the capacity to provoke the response of heaven in your direction. It is an error to stop speaking about God because of the efforts of the enemy.
Even if there are chains on your hands and feet, don’t let the chains silence you. Keep speaking. Use your words to call yourself forth out of prison.
FURTHER READING: ROMANS 10
DECLARATION:
- I will not be silenced by the prisons of this world, in Jesus’ name!
