“I will call upon the Lord, who is worthy to be praised;
so shall I be saved from my enemies.”
2nd Samuel 22:4

One evening, my sister, my daughter, my granddaughter and I sat around a table to share and to pray. In the course of the conversation, the story came up about Paul and Silas who had been beaten and thrown into a dungeon, their feet in stocks, their backs bloodied. But then they began singing praises to God!!! And that leaves the reader with the question …HOW??? How on earth could these two men, human beings like you and me, sing praises to God in a situation like that?! It’s beyond understanding.

As they sang their songs of praise, a “great earthquake” hit and it was so jolting that their chains fell and the doors were opened. When the other prisoners saw that, they were so stunned that they realized this was an act of God and they ended up being saved. This story is recorded in Acts 16:22-34.

As we sat around that table and were recounting that story …the room began to shake and we realized we were having an earthquake!!! We just sat there stunned, looking at each other …we were left speechless. We realized the Lord was showing us something so important that he even caused an earthquake to take place while we were speaking about the earthquake that set Paul and Silas free.

The Lord showed us that day how to respond whenever sorrows hit us. There’s power in praise, if only we will do things God’s way, defying the natural laws and stepping instead into the supernatural realm where we will be met by the Lord himself. This is a lesson we will all need to remember as horrendous times are just over the horizon.

Praise changes things. Doing things God’s way changes things. Always.