CONCERT OF PRAYER

Pray Week 969

“They Listened”

About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the prisoners were listening to them… (Acts 16:25)

Paul and Silas had been falsely accused, beaten with rods many times, and thrown into prison with their feet fastened in stocks. Although innocent, they found themselves in the same situation and environment with all the other prisoners.

It would have been easy for Paul and Silas to be angry and embittered about their situation. It would have been easy for them to curse their jailers and to speak out vulgarities against them. In doing so they would have blended in with their environment. They would have been no different than all the other prisoners.

But instead Paul and Silas prayed and sang hymns to God – and the other prisoners listened to them.

What separates Christians is how we act and behave in the same life situation as non-Christians. We can quote the entire Bible from memory and it will not speak as loudly to the unsaved as do our responses to life’s circumstances – both positive and negative. The prosperous and the impoverished Christian alike are watched and their life responses are ‘listened’ to. The worldly listen to see if the Truth of God’s Word is alive and active in their hearts. They listen to determine if the Truth of the Gospel of Jesus is real.

For many people, you are the only ‘bible’ they will ever ‘read’ and your actions will speak more to them than the words of your personal testimony about Jesus.

Not many of us have experienced what Paul and Silas experienced – the false accusation, severe beating and imprisonment. Yet they sang hymns and prayed to God. What do the prisoners ‘hear’ from you when things don’t go quite right at the office or at home? Do you push people away from Jesus or are they drawn to Him through the ‘message of your life’?

Are you a different person in the Sunday church context than you are at home or at work? Are you a different person when you have traveled far from the context or accountability of your home base? Is the character of Jesus Christ consistently evident in your character, no matter where you are?

How do you respond to life’s challenges and difficult situations? Is your response consistent with Biblical values and Christian ethics? Do you respond as one who moves in the strength, peace, love and power of God’s Holy Spirit? Does your response lift high the banner of the Lord so that all who see and watch and listen may be drawn to Him and set free from the bondage and death of sin?

Pray for integrity and consistency in your daily walk with Jesus. Seek to live and move and have your being in Him. Seek His continual abiding presence. May all who ‘listen’ to your life be drawn to Jesus.