Joy: think about it

We were privileged and blessed to be part of a ‘Footsteps’ Tour and many parts of scripture have come alive for me.

Being in the actual paces written about in the Bible brought a whole new focus and reality. Even so, many of the scenes have already blurred into a conglomerate of ruins, pillar, heat, and dust. But one that stands out for me is Philippi. We saw the prison where Paul was incarcerated along with Silas.

Paul and Silas were stripped and flogged, then chained and left in a prison cell because they had healed a demented girl. So here they were, wrongfully arrested, beaten, bruised, stiff and bloodied. They must have longed for sleep. It’s not too difficult to imagine that possibly the most common sounds in a prison at night would be groaning and crying. Yet the sound heard in the jail at Philippi that night was of prayer and singing of praises to God. Prayer was to be expected – many people pray when they are in trouble. But singing praises was something different. You have to wonder about the reactions of the other prisoners – maybe they just wanted quiet and sleep. But maybe one or two began to think and to question – the jailer certainly did.

The story is tantalizingly brief. There must have been so much more to the exchange between Paul and the jailer. He came to Christ with his whole family. Later Paul wrote to the Christians at Philippi perhaps even to the jailer, expressing his joy in them. “I thank my God whenever I think of you”, he wrote. Paul was writing from another prison – in Rome. Could he think of Philippi without also remembering the beating and the jail? Yet it is a story of praise and joy.

Imprisonment doesn’t have to be only in a physical sense. There can be things in our lives that imprison our spirits and rob us of our joy.  Things like doubt, faltering faith, guilt, unforgiveness, self-centredness, ego, insecurity, work demands, family demands, and a frustrated ‘all about me’ mentality. Singing praises to God at midnight gave Paul and Silas freedom in their spirits. Physical freedom followed.   I don’t believe it is possible to express joy in what God has done for us and still allow the prison bars of these things to confine us.

It was an earthquake that provided potential freedom for the prisoners at Philippi, but it was God breaking into their lives that gave them real freedom and joy. Joy is one of the characteristics of a Christian and we are exhorted to express it in many ways and on many occasions:
“Be joyful always” 1 Thessalonians 5:16 “Always be joyful in your union with the Lord. I say it again; rejoice!” Philippians 4:4 May God, the source of your hope, fill you with all joy: Romans 15:13

Sometimes it can be the sheer act of expressing joy and praise that releases us from our personal prisons.

By Elaine Vyle