[Steve Myers] Have you ever gotten stuck in your life? I was working on a door in my house that had a problem with the handle, with the knob, on the door and I started taking it off. And as I took it apart, the handle fell out, but I was on the inside of the door and the door was shut and now I couldn't get out. And I had to put my finger into that little knob where the hole was to try to pull that latch back in order to get out, to get the parts that I needed to fix the door. And I was certainly reminded how sometimes life seems like that. We're stuck behind this door and we can't get out. And this door is just absolutely shut. And what are we gonna do about it? Life sometimes presents situations like that.

There was a very serious situation that Paul and Silas faced. And in a sense that door was slammed shut. In fact, it wasn't just a household door, it was a prison door. And they beat Paul, they beat Silas, they threw them in prison. And in Acts 16, it tells us about that situation and then what they did in order to handle it. How would you face that situation when life slams a door on you? Well, here's Paul and Silas' example. It says, "They laid many stripes on them. They threw them into prison." And Acts 16:24 it says, "Having received such a charge, they put them in prison, fastened their feet in the stocks." So imagine that scene. Not only a slammed door, but a prison door and chains wrapped around their feet as well. So what did they do? It says," At midnight, Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the prisoners were listening to them." 

So their reaction to the shut door that they were facing was to turn to God, to pray, and actually to sing, to honor God through music. What was the result? Verse 26, "Suddenly there was a great earthquake so that the foundations of the prisons were shaken, and immediately, the doors were opened and everyone's chains were loosed." So not just Paul and Silas, it seems, but everybody in the prison.

And so what we begin to see is prayer and praising and worshiping God has results in a powerful way in this story. And I think it's a good reminder for us. Those doors can fly open that we face, those doors that it seems impossible to get through. If we're stuck behind a door, remember Paul and Silas, remember this. God may not throw open that door immediately in an earthquake in our life, but you know, he can do miraculous things in amazing ways in our personal life as well.

So keep praying, keep singing. We have a God who opens doors.

That's BT Daily. We'll see you next time.