A Miracle in the Midnight Hour
Enter his gates with thanksgiving; go into his courts with praise. Give thanks to him and praise his name. For the Lord is good.
Psalm 100:4-5 (NLT)
There’s a story in Acts 16 about how the Apostle Paul and his traveling companion Silas had been beaten and thrown in jail for casting an evil spirit out of a slave girl who had been harassing them. Even though they were suffering for something they had done that was right, they were not whining or complaining. They weren’t saying things like, “Oh, God, where were you when we needed you?”
Instead, they began praying, singing hymns and praising God, verse 25 tell us, even at the midnight hour.
The midnight hour—or the middle of the night, as we might say it now—is often one of the toughest times of the day. Paul and Silas had been severely beaten. Their legs were chained in stocks. And they were thrown into the dungeon, the deepest part of the prison, to keep them from escaping. To the other prisoners who could see their situation, it must have looked as hopeless as their own.
But even at their most hopeless time, Paul and Silas made the decision to praise God in the midst of it. And as they were praising Him, it says very simply that a great rumbling began to take place, and the prison doors were thrown open. The chains holding not just Paul and Silas, but all the prisoners, were loosed, and they were set free by the power of God.
I believe that as we give thanks to God in the middle of our situation—especially when it’s a rough one, or an ugly one—our thanksgiving opens the gates, or the doors, of heaven and we’re allowed to go into the court rooms of God singing praises to Him. And as our praise begins to fill the very ears of God Himself, it draws Him into our situation…because Psalm 22:3 tells us that God lives and dwells in the praises of His people.
And when God becomes a part of our situation, no matter how bad it is, that situation can start to change and line up with the will of God. We can be set free from the chains binding our lives—just as those prisoners were freed from that Roman jail cell.
What’s holding you bound right now? What is the prison you’re dealing with? Is is a financial prison? A prison of physical pain? An emotional or family prison? Or it may be a prison of some other kind. If you’re in the midnight hour right now, and you feel like you’re in bondage, like something has literally chained you up, begin to praise God. For in the midst of that problem He is still good, as Psalm 100 tells us, and He is able to set the captive free.
And just as Paul’s and Silas’ chains were broken, my prayer is that the bondages in your life will be broken off of you by the power of God, as you enter His gates with thanksgiving and His courts with praise. And I pray for God to set you free and make you whole, in Jesus’ name.
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