The Reality of a GodQuake
40 Gifts of Lent | Gift 20
Reflections on Acts 12 – 17
And when they had inflicted many blows upon [Paul and Silas], they threw them into prison, ordering the jailer to keep them safely. Having received this order, he put them into the inner prison and fastened their feet in the stocks. About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the prisoners were listening to them, and suddenly there was a great earthquake, so that the foundations of the prison were shaken. And immediately all the doors were opened, and everyone’s bonds were unfastened. Acts 16: 23 – 26
Our agenda apart from God is to have a very safe, tidy little life. God says, “Sacrifice your individual needs for me and my glory!” When God comes into our life, things give way to his glory. Instead of you fitting God into your agenda, he becomes your agenda. He radically changes your priorities. The reality of God supersedes the most frightening, dark and difficult situation to a place of singing and worshipping him.
When the jailer woke and saw that the prison doors were open, he drew his sword and was about to kill himself, supposing that the prisoners had escaped. Acts 16: 27
Every single person who has met God knows of a time when God went from being a concept into being a reality. There’s always an earthquake when God comes down in the Bible because God’s glory is ultimate. God’s reality shakes everything.
But Paul cried with a loud voice, “Do not harm yourself, for we are all here.” And the jailer called for lights and rushed in, and trembling with fear he fell down before Paul and Silas. Then he brought them out and said, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?” And they said, “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved, you and your household.” Acts 16: 28 – 31
When you get into the presence of the real God, things that you believe very deeply will change, because He’s more glorious than you. God will rearrange everything in your life, as he did in the jailer’s life, to reveal his glory to you. Like the jailer, we cannot deny the reality of a God quake when he moves in our hearts and calls us into his grace.
And they (Paul and Silas) spoke the word of the Lord to him and to all who were in his house. And he (the jailer) took them the same hour of the night and washed their wounds; and he was baptized at once, he and all his family. Then he brought them up into his house and set food before them. And he rejoiced along with his entire household that he had believed in God. Acts 16: 32 – 34
The gift is being rescued from a shattered and splintered life into a life of overwhelming peace and joy…the reality of a Godquake.
My personal journal notes from a podcast by Tim Keller, The Gospel and Your Self, was used for this post.
I am anticipating the arrival of Easter and celebrating the most amazingly good gift I’ve ever received. I want to focus my heart on the fulfilled expectation of Christ’s first coming and the glorious expectation of His second coming. To continue reading, please go here: 40 Gifts of Lent
Donna Harris‑More Grace 