God Is With Us, Even in Hard Times

A Seventh-day Adventist pastor was arrested for a crime he didn’t do. The pastor went to jail for almost two years. At first, the pastor was sad and confused. Why did God let this bad thing happen to him? Didn’t God care about him? Soon the pastor understood that God sent him to jail to save people! When the people in jail learned who the pastor was, they asked him to preach. So, the pastor preached the Good News about Jesus. The pastor also gave the people who were in jail books about the Bible. He baptized the people in jail and gave them the Lord’s Supper. The pastor said, “Some days I had a hard time working in the jail. But I also felt so much joy. I felt happy when I saw the Lord change people’s lives. I saw God answer my prayers.”

People thought that Paul and Silas did a crime, but they didn’t do it. They, too, were thrown in jail. The man in charge of the jail “locked their feet in holes cut in heavy pieces of wood” ( Acts 16:24 📖 , WE). While in jail, Paul wrote letters to church members in the cities of Philippi and Colossae (read Philippians 1:7 and Colossians 4:3 📖 ).

This week, we will look at what happened to Paul while he was in jail. Paul’s pain in jail helped him to see God’s plan for his life. May Paul’s example teach us how to keep serving God when times are hard.