Dark periods in life come to all of us—times when all you know about God is being put to the test. The Apostle Paul had an experience like that. It started when he had a vision of a man begging him, “Come over to Macedonia and help us” (Acts 16:9). Sensing this was God directing him, Paul and his helper Silas immediately went to Philippi, a leading city of that area.

Shortly after their arrival, however, as a result of casting an evil spirit out of a slave girl so that she could no longer foretell the future and make money for her owners, they were ordered to be severely beaten and put in prison. And it wasn’t just a holding cell.  They were put in an inner cell—maximum security with their feet in stocks.

So here they are in total darkness with bloody, hurting backs. They could have questioned God’s direction. They could have had a giant pity party. But the Bible tells us, “About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God.”  Amazing!

Then something else amazing happened. A violent earthquake shook the prison so severely that all the prison doors flew open and the prisoners’ chains came loose. In the next few hours Paul and Silas led the jailer to faith in the Lord, who washed their wounds and fed them a meal.  They even baptized the jailer and all his family.

Do your circumstances feel like a prison cell from which there is no escape? Does darkness surround you, and you’re in pain?  Hold on to what you know to be true about God. Difficult circumstances don’t necessarily mean you’re “out of God’s will.” Do what Paul and Silas did—pray and sing hymns and worship songs to the Lord in the dark until He sends the earthquake that will release you from your cell of confinement. As Pastor Buddy Owens puts it, “Don’t allow prison to shake your faith; let faith shake your prison.”