“But at midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the prisoners were listening to them. Suddenly there was a great earthquake, so that the foundations of the prison were shaken; and immediately all the doors were opened and everyone’s chains were loosed.” (Acts 16:25-26, NKJV) No one was asleep that night. Even at midnight, well past most people’s usual bedtime, sleep would not come. Admittedly, this was no luxury hotel with a warm shower, soft sheets, and a comfy pillow. This was a prison, a dark, damp, dreary prison. awake at midnight The two new guys, recently thrown into the inner cell and their feet placed in stocks, certainly didn’t feel like sleeping. They had been stripped of their clothes and badly beaten — unjustly so — leaving their backs bloody, raw, and extremely painful. They received no medical attention or pain medicine. We can only imagine their intense misery with these fresh open wounds. During the dark hours of the night, a sound drifted from that inner cell and drew the attention of the other prisoners. It wasn’t the sound of angry cursing about those who had inflicted this pain. It wasn’t angry complaints…

And He said to them, “Which of you shall have a friend, and go to him at midnight and say to him, ‘Friend, lend me three loaves; for a friend of mine has come to me on his journey, and I have nothing to set before him.’ “(Luke 11:5-6, NKJV) Jesus was a storyteller. When He wanted to teach a lesson, He often wrapped that lesson in a parable to help His listeners understand. One day His disciples observed Him praying. As He finished, one asked, “Lord, teach us to pray, as John also taught his disciples.” Jesus began with the basics of prayer. Today we refer to it as “The Lord’s Prayer.” Many of us memorized this prayer as a child. It’s really a pattern or a template of how to pray rather than words to memorize and repeat. Within just a few verses, the Lord captures the importance of worship, consecration, forgiveness, intercession, and protection. Prayer persistence But the Lord did not stop with these prayer basics. He continued with a parable that taught something else they needed in their prayer life: persistence. The parable told of a man asleep when a sudden knocking at his door woke him.…

“The terrible storm raged for many days, blotting out the sun and the stars, until at last all hope was gone.” (Acts 27:20, NLT) First Century travel was nothing like travel today. When we plan a trip, we have numerous options. We can drive, take a train, book a flight, or, for some locations, take a ship. When Paul and his companions traveled, not for vacations but for evangelism, their two primary modes of travel were walking and cargo ships. (Passenger ships as we know them did not exist.) It is estimated that Paul traveled over 10,000 miles during his ministry. In those days, ship travel was risky and shipwrecks frequent. Paul knew this from personal experience. In II Corinthians 11:25 he says this had happened to him during previous travels. “Three times I was shipwrecked; a night and a day I have been in the deep.” This current trip was not a vacation. Nor was it a visit to encourage the churches scattered throughout the region. In Roman protective custody for two years, the Jewish council wanted Paul returned from Caesarea to Jerusalem. As a Roman citizen, Paul claimed his right to an appeal before Caesar and was now…

“Has the potter no right over the clay, to make out of the same lump one vessel for honorable use and another for dishonorable use?” Romans 9:21 A year or two ago, I decided to try a new craft with my two girls: air-dry clay. I had watched many videos and tutorials on how to make adorable little animal figurines and was determined to create some of my own. I (unfortunately) hyped my daughters up and convinced them that they would be masters of air-dry clay in a matter of seconds. You can probably guess how this venture ended. Air-dry clay is a formidable foe, and at the end of one hour, all we had to show for ourselves were dirty hands and a pile of clay that sort of, slightly, not really, resembled a mushroom, a unicorn, and a cow. This led me to wonder, am I sometimes difficult to work with in the hands of God? Do I fight the process, resolving early on that my ways are better and that I understand more than He does? Does my distorted perception interfere with my seeing clearly what God is trying to do in my life? Personally, the answer…