What must I do to be saved?

And he brought them out and said, "Sirs, what must I do to be saved?" So they said, "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved, you and your household." Then they spoke the word of the Lord to him and to all who were in his house. And he took them the same hour of the night and washed their stripes. And immediately he and all his family were baptised.  – Acts 16.30-33

The story of the Philippian jailer is one of those great stories. This is one of the first passages of scripture I ever looked about the time of my salvation. The simplicity of the gospel grabbed my attention.

Paul and Silas were in prison for preaching (again). They were still in Philippi when they cast a demon on of a girl who was making money through here demonic prophecies. When her owners saw it they realised their hope of making money was gone they had Paul and Silas arrested.

That set the stage of a couple of noteworthy events.

First we see Paul and Silas in chains in a dirty old jail at midnight. But we don't see them down and feeling sorry for themselves. We see them, after being arrested and beaten and chained to the wall, praying and singing hymns to the Lord.

This fact alone is enough to cause us to pause and consider. Every time I look over this passage I am disgusted with my own little pity parties. Paul and Silas were n the depths of despair  They had it really bad. And yet they were praying and singing hymns of praise. And the other prisoners were listening to them. (Ouch, what a challenge.)

But on to the point of today's thought.

Paul and Silas could rejoice and pray and sing in the midst of a desperate situation because they were men of faith. They knew and believed and trusted that no matter how bad things seemed God would use it for His glory (there is a lesson in itself there!)

And did God ever work! He sent an earthquake that broke down the chains and the prison bars. All of the prisoners were free and of right should have just taken off. Losing prisoners was a capital offence so the jailer drew his sword to kill himself when he saw the mess. But Paul stepped forward and told him to hold off ‘Don’t do anything’ Paul called out, ‘we are all here.’

Now remember what had been going on just before. Paul and Silas after been arrested and beaten were handed over to this jailer. Instead of moaning and crying and whinging about their miserable lot in life they prayed and sang and the prison heard them. When the earthquake came none of the prisoners left.

Often God is doing the most work when we can’t see it. Often He is working the most when all we see is gloom and defeat. This was one of those cases.

The jailer was stunned – ‘Sirs, what must I do to be saved?’

There we have it. Do you think the arrest and the beating and being chained in a first century jail was worth it to hear that one man say that? Of course it was!

And then those immortal words ‘Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved.’

God used their trial and affliction to bring the jailer and his family to Christ. This helped to lay the foundation for the church at Philippi.

What can and will God do through our struggles and affliction? Maybe if I (and others possibly  would learn to pray and sing praises instead of moan and complain we might see what He can do.