DESPAIR LEADING TO GRACE
ACTS 16: 25 - 34
25 About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the other prisoners were listening to them.
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 everybody's chains came loose.
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.
28 But Paul shouted, "Don't harm yourself! We are all here!"
29 The jailer called for lights, rushed in and fell trembling before Paul and Silas.
30 He then brought them out and asked, "Sirs, what must I do to be saved?"
31 They replied, "Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved--you and your household."
32 Then they spoke the word of the Lord to him and to all the others in his house.
33 At that hour of the night the jailer took them and washed their wounds; then immediately he and all his family were baptized.
34 The jailer brought them into his house and set a meal before them; he was filled with joy because he had come to believe in God--he and his whole family.
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Nobody likes to face a personal crises. Yet God can use hard times in our lives to bring us to a point of despair so we'll turn to him. That's what happened to the Philippian jailer in this story. The events the writer describes brought this man to the brink of suicide.
Despairing, broken and helpless, the jailer asked Paul and Silas, "What must I do to be saved?" Paul told the jailer to go to Jesus, believe in him, trust in him, rely on him. In Jesus, this man began a new life. (v. 34).
Has God used a personal crises in your life as a "wake-up call" to bring you back to him? The challenge for men today is to learn from the jailer's example. We need to maintain our relationship with Jesus so that when life's inevitable trials do come, we're prepared to look to him for help.
