Surrender and breakthrough go hand in hand. First we surrender, then we experience breakthrough. But what if you’ve gone through all the steps, surrendered everything you can think of—and yet true freedom feels just out of reach? I know the struggle feels overwhelming, and you’ve been fighting the good fight. You feel the chains of oppression refusing to shake loose, and the hope you’ve been trying to hold onto slowly slipping away. At this point you’ve probably started to wonder, where is God in all this?
Fortunately, God gave us the story of Paul and Silas in prison to help us understand how to remain joyful in hope, patient in affliction, and faithful in prayer (see Romans 12:12) in the midst of our trials and suffering. In Acts 16:16–40, we read that these two disciples had just been severely beaten for testifying about Jesus, thrown into prison, and locked up in chains. I imagine that the prison environment would have promoted hopelessness and despair: dark, dank, with the sound of clanking chains and groaning from fellow inmates. How is it that Paul and Silas never gave up on God?
Unlike their fellow inmates, Paul and Silas were not without hope. They trusted God had a plan. Rather than give up, they began to sing! Rather than worry about their future or look to their chains in despair, Paul and Silas kept their eyes on God. They didn’t sit in their jail cell panicking, complaining, or worrying. They didn’t dwell on the pain they felt or consider the horrible way they had been treated. In their time of bondage, they chose to rise above their circumstances and believe that God was still with them and for them. As a result, in a place without hope, they became a source of hope and encouragement to others. In their worship to the Lord, they gave their fellow prisoners the courage to believe that they too had a Savior who loved them!
The story doesn’t end there. Paul and Silas were still singing songs of praise to God with the other prisoners listening in, when something miraculous happened: “Suddenly there was such a violent earthquake that the foundations of the prison were shaken. At once all the prison doors flew open, and everyone’s chains came loose” (Acts 16:26).
Wow! How great is our God! Paul and Silas trusted in the faithfulness of Jesus, their Savior, to break through their chains—and their faith, demonstrated through praise, opened the door for God to work a miracle in their midst. They got their breakthrough! As we can clearly see from this story, there is power in our praise to usher in the presence of the Lord. What is praise but an outward expression of our belief in Jesus Christ? By declaring our faith in Jesus to save us—through praise—I am confident we will see heaven invade earth and God move in power on our behalf.
God always works in ways that will bring about the greatest good. Not only did God deliver Paul and Silas and all the other prisoners from prison, but He allowed His breakthrough, miracle power to have a ripple effect. The story continues:
The jailer woke up, and when he saw the prison doors open, he drew his sword and was about to kill himself because he thought the prisoners had escaped. But Paul shouted, “Don’t harm yourself! We are all here!” The jailer called for lights, rushed in and fell trembling before Paul and Silas. He then brought them out and asked, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?” They replied, “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved—you and your household.” Then they spoke the word of the Lord to him and to all the others in his house. At that hour of the night the jailer took them and washed their wounds; then immediately he and all his household were baptized. —Acts 16:27–33
Incredible! When the jailer saw all the prisoners’ cell doors open wide and their chains broken off, he must have believed his worst fears were coming true! He was responsible for keeping prisoners. If they all had escaped, he would be held accountable, likely paying for his error with his own life.
With their chains broken off and their cell doors flung wide open, Paul and Silas could easily have made their escape without a moment’s delay. Who would blame them for high-tailing it out of there? Rather than leave when they had the chance, however, I believe they recognized that true freedom is found in Jesus Christ alone. Even in chains, Paul and Silas were free. They must have discerned, however, that the jailer was not. The jailer, though physically unbound, was nonetheless a captive to fear.
That night, Paul and Silas were called to extend the love of Jesus to the jailer so he could be set free from his fear of death, and he and his household saved for eternity. All that was required for their deliverance was that they believe in the Lord Jesus, according to verse 31.
This was his breakthrough moment, the moment God had ordained for him from before the world began to come to the knowledge and truth of Jesus Christ. The veil was removed from his eyes, and for the first time, he understood the love of Jesus—the earth-shaking, chain-breaking power of His perfect love! Praise the Lord!
What if Paul and Silas had left prison the moment their chains came off and the doors opened? They would have missed the opportunity for God to use them to help save the jailer and his family. How devastating that could have been! Like Paul and Silas, we are also called to submit to God’s perfect timing so the greatest good can be accomplished in and through us.
Jesus came to set the jailer free from his bondage to fear—and He will set you free, too. Jesus has already gone before you and cleared the path paved for your deliverance from anxiety and fear. The Bible confirms this, saying, “Since the children have flesh and blood, he too shared in their humanity so that by his death he might break the power of him who holds the power of death—that is, the devil—and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death” (Hebrews 2:14–15). If Jesus gave His life so that all might be saved and live free from anything that would try to keep us in bondage, then you need only believe in Him to receive your deliverance!
While I don’t know when or how your breakthrough will come, I do know God’s promise is that He will bring you out of the darkness and break away your chains (Psalm 107:14). God has not abandoned you! In His perfect timing, Jesus, our chain breaker, will break through every chain of oppression holding you in bondage to anxiety and fear, so that you may live in freedom and rejoice in Him—if only you believe!
Don’t let your struggle with anxiety and fear continue to control you or keep you in bondage! Start praising Jesus for who He is—your chain breaker! Praise Him for the breakthrough He already has planned for you and the future He has prepared for you! Believe without doubting that He has the power to rescue you, and that He intends to do it. Child of God, His grace is for you!
“Some sat in darkness, in utter darkness, prisoners suffering in iron chains, because they rebelled against God’s commands and despised the plans of the Most High. So he subjected them to bitter labor; they stumbled, and there was no one to help. Then they cried to the Lord in their trouble, and he saved them from their distress. He brought them out of darkness, the utter darkness, and broke away their chains. Let them give thanks to the Lord for his unfailing love and his wonderful deeds for mankind, for he breaks down gates of bronze and cuts through bars of iron.”
—Psalm 107:10–16
