What A Good Praise Meeting Can Do!

There is much controversy concerning the various forms worship is taking in the church today. Some say, there is too much razz-ma-tazz and that worship has taken on more entertainment than worship before the Lord. Others say that the old hymns don’t move the youth of today and more contemporary music is needed to encourage them to attend church.

Wherever you are on the spectrum of this controversy, one thing for sure is true, a good praise meeting can really shake up things:

²⁵ And at midnight Paul and Silas prayed, and sang praises unto God: and the prisoners heard them. Acts 16:25 (NIV)

There was no music, no special lighting, the only effects present was a dark, damp, dreary cell where Paul and Silas were chained together. The other prisoners had fallen asleep, after all it was midnight. The guards were catching a nap, for after all where could the prisoners go?

When all of a sudden out of they depths of their belly, Paul and Silas didn’t wait for a sign that it was alright, instead they just began to praise God. They didn’t praise God for the situation, they praised God IN SPITE OF the situation. They didn’t have an expectation that this would produce any kind of outward results, all they knew was that when they praised God, they felt better. And then suddenly:

²⁶ Suddenly there was such a violent earthquake that the foundations of the prison were shaken. At once all the prison doors flew open, and everyone’s chains came loose. Acts 16:25

Imagine what took place after that earthquake. The prisoners had awakened when they heard the praise and worship service. They suddenly saw that their chains had come loose – a way to escape. The warden of the prison was frantic, he knew that his head would be required of him if any one of the prisoners escaped. What next spoke to the faith of Paul and Silas:

²⁷  The jailer woke up, and when he saw the prison doors open, he drew his sword and was about to kill himself because he thought the prisoners had escaped. But Paul shouted, “Don’t harm yourself! We are all here!” Acts 16:27-28

Paul and Silas not only sat there in the jail when they could have been freed, they convinced the others to stay too. Seems like the praise and worship service ushered in a kind of insanity, until you read the rest of the story. It’s all there in Acts 16.

Maria