The Healing Jesus: An Advent Devotional to Encourage Anybody and EverybodySample

SILAS: THE ONE WHO WAS IN SHACKLES

I'm Silas, better known as the sidekick of Paul. We've covered some ground, but what happened at Philippi still blows my mind.

We had been showing up daily to pray, encourage, and minister to the people there. A slave girl with the spirit of divination would follow us the entire way there and back daily. But she wasn't just following us; she was screaming and shouting for the neighborhood to hear. It annoyed Paul, but her message touched my heart. She would cry out that we were servants of the Most High God, and we were proclaiming to them the way of salvation. This message was on repeat for days on end. Finally, Paul had enough and, in frustration, commanded that evil spirit in the name of Jesus to come out of her.

But this is where everything started falling apart. This demon-possessed girl brought in a lot of money for her owners by fortune-telling. Once the spirit was driven out, she was useless. The owners accused us of creating a disturbance. All we were doing was praying for people, but they were furious at the loss of their financial means. They tore our outer garments off of us and beat us with rods before throwing us in jail.

At first the jailer treated us like murderers, putting us in the inner prison and locking our feet in the stocks. Seriously? Us? We both felt pretty hopeless. After all, what kind of influence could we have there?

That's when we started singing hymns and praise to our God. Soon, other prisoners were listening and joining in. The whole place seemed to be shaking with worship. Suddenly, Paul and I realized that the prison was shaking. An earthquake split the entire jail foundation open, all the doors burst open, and all bonds on our wrists and ankles were unfastened. The jailer was ready to fall on his sword when we assured him we were all here. That jailer who had shackled our ankles the night before was now washing our wounds in his own home and giving us his food. Tears fell from my eyes as I witnessed his entire household getting baptized. Praise be to our Lord Jesus!

Jesus is healing, even when you are shackled in trouble.

Questions for Talk it Over:

1. What happened to the jailer and his family?

2. What is a trouble you feel shackled to right now?

3. How can Jesus use this trouble for good?