Day 28 – Oct. 28

“About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the prisoners were listening to them, and 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 bonds were unfastened.” -Acts 16:25-26

I don’t know if you have ever heard the solid metallic clink of a jail door closing and locking from the inside. I have – it was a dreadful and empty feeling but it was there that God met me years ago. He still meets many people there today. We read in Romans 13:6: “the authorities are the ministers of God…” I believe in today’s passage that God sovereignly used the authorities as His servants to bring Paul and Silas in contact with incarcerated people who needed to hear the message of the Gospel. Many who are incarcerated in our community are in the same unique circumstance: God has used the authorities to bring them face-to-face with Himself, so they might believe.

Father, thank you for Your ability to reach into the darkest and depressing of places to pull us out. Thank you for the power of Your gospel – that we can know freedom regardless of circumstance. We pray that those incarcerated in our community will trust in Your Son and find freedom and forgiveness. We pray for their families: that they will be provided for and that they too can find freedom in Your Son. We lift up our jail ministers and ask that you would provide for them the materials that they need and that you would anoint them with power and grace to reach these men and women who are imprisoned. Thank you for setting us free. In Jesus name, Amen.