In today's first reading, Acts 16: 22-34, Paul and Silas are arrested, "stripped and ordered...to be beaten with rods. After inflicting many blows on them, they threw them into prison and instructed the jailer to guard them securely....About midnight, while Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God as the prisoners listened....
God at work in believers! When we are the Lords and act as such, miracles happen! In the midst of suffering, Paul and Silas pray and sing songs to the Lord! What do I and you do when we encounter difficulties, when we are "chained," "beaten" down, not literally but with words or ill health, "imprisoned" in pride, fear, in anger, powerlessness or whatever stops us from doing that which we have been commissioned to do, as Paul and Silas were? Do we turn to the Lord in prayer, singing songs to the Lord? Do we stay focused on the Lord? Or do we turn our focus on the problems we have encountered, thus losing heart?
May we, in times of hardship, through the grace of God, be witnesses to the gift of faith that we have been given at our baptisms.
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