(August 20, 2025) Dr Richard Winter challenges troubled Christians to sing in our darkest times.

There are times in life when things are hard, and life is difficult. Has that been the case in your life? Encountered dark hours?

In Acts 16, Paul and Silas were beaten and thrown into prison. They didn’t know whether they would be rescued or killed for their faith. Nevertheless, they prayed and sang to the Lord in their darkest hour. How were they able to do that, you ask. Because God is worthy of our worship no what matter our circumstances.

Hence a question for any troubled reader, any troubled Christian…
It’s easy to sing when times are good, but how easily do you sing when times are bad?

In this article I’m inviting you all just not any troubled reader, but every Christian to pray, ‘Lord, teach me to sing in the darkest hour.’ In other words, when things are bad in any of our lives, may we still have a song on our lips for the One who is worthy of our worship!

Darkness Begins
Let me share the background to Paul and Silas’ imprisonment—
In Acts 15:36-41 we read of a big argument between Paul and Barnabus over the latter’s choice to bring Mark along with them in the next stage of their missionary enterprises. But Paul didn’t want Mark to accompany them as he had dropped them back in Pamphylia (Acts 13:13)… and now there was a division of these two church leaders.

Barnabus,  the Son of Encouragement, had a big view of Mark… yes, he wasn’t a good missionary and had skipped out of their team early on. But Barnabus’ attitude was ‘Let’s give him another chance.’

Not so with Paul— his thinking was ‘He’s done, he’s a failure. On your way, my friend… you go your way, Barnabus, I’m going mine. You take Mark but I’m taking Silas.’

It’s interesting that years later when Paul was in a Roman prison and Timothy was coming to see him, he told him to bring Mark along ‘for he is useful to me for ministry’ (2Timothy 4:11). People, like times, change and God can use a failure!

Darkness Descends
In moving on, Paul and Silas are directed by God in a dream that Paul had, and head for Macedonia. And they successfully minister there. But…

Acts 16:16-18 tell that ‘Now it happened, as we went to prayer, that a certain slave girl possessed with a spirit of divination met us, who brought her masters much profit by fortune-telling. This girl followed Paul and us, and cried out, saying, “These men are the servants of the Most High God, who proclaim to us the way of salvation.” And this she did for many days. But Paul, greatly annoyed, turned and said to the spirit, “I command you in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her.” And he came out that very hour.’

And that’s how Paul and Silas’s imprisonment came about! (verses 19-24): Her masters saw that they had lost their hope of profit and seized Paul and Silas, dragging them before the authorities and  magistrates, and claiming: ‘These men, being Jews, exceedingly trouble our city; and they teach customs which are not lawful for us, being Romans, to receive or observe.’ A multitude rose up together against Paul and Silas and the magistrates commanded that they be beaten with rods.

Verses 23-24 record that they indeed received many stripes and were then thrown into prison, and the jailer commanded to keep (tereo… guard, keep an eye on) them securely. So he put them into the inner prison, fastening their feet in the stocks. ‘Inner prison’ was regarded as the most secure, secluded part of a prison, likely a dark dungeon or cell deep within the complex.

Now how would we be feeling after all that? Verse 25-34 tell an incredible story! Instead of feeling miserable, let down, helpless and hopeless that dark night Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God even at midnight! And… other prisoners around them in that inner dark prison were listening to them!

All of this occurred on Paul’s second missionary journey. He hadn’t gone far and his preaching about Jesus had landed him and Silas in some civic antisemitism, demonic activity, a thorough beating and imprisonment!

If what happened to Paul and Silas happened to us, we’d probably be weeping… dreading worse to come! (Did you know that a few weeks ago 49 Christians were beheaded in the Democratic Republic of the Congo for their faith?).

Darkness Defeated!
But Paul and Silas were calmly singing in their darkest hour? Could we— can we— do that, I wonder?

What happened next was out-of-the-blue! ‘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 chains were loosed. And the keeper of the prison, awaking from sleep and seeing the prison doors open, supposing the prisoners had fled, drew his sword and was about to kill himself. But Paul called with a loud voice, saying, “Do yourself no harm, for we are all here.”’

The frightened prison keeper called for a light and came running into that inner area where he fell down trembling before Paul and Silas. Then, he brought them out saying, ‘Sirs, what must I do to be saved?’

Paul and Silas’ response? If they were happy singing in the darkness they were even happier now in that light! ‘So they said, “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved, you and your household.” Then they spoke the word of the Lord to him and to all who were in his house. And he took them the same hour of the night and washed their stripes. And immediately he and all his family were baptised. Now when he had brought them into his house, he set food before them; and he rejoiced, having believed in God with all his household’(v31-34).

Never shortchange what God is doing even when you don’t like it or understand it. Paul and Silas had been stripped naked, beaten with rods, imprisoned and put into stocks. What do you think you would do? What would you do if you were frozen in a place like a prison— literal or figurative—  and you can’t move? Maybe that’s where you are just now for that matter, dear reader!

Paul and Silas are our great example: Sing and pray! But… would you say ‘Lord, teach me to sing in the darkness.’

Darkness Overcome
Prayer is a relatively normal response in crisis; Singing is more challenging in a crisis. So let me tell you of a man who is closer to us in terms of time than Paul and Silas.

American lawyer and Presbyterian church elder Horatio Spafford was a prosperous lawyer who lost most of his wealth in the 1871 Great Chicago Fire. In 1873, he had planned a transatlantic trip to Europe with his wife Anna and their four daughters only to discover that he couldn’t leave with them due to business demands. Tragically their ship SS Ville du Havre was crashed into by an iron sailing vessel and it sank in the Atlantic.

Anna survived, but not the children! On learning the tragic news, Spafford sailed to England to meet his grieving wife. His ship happened to pass over the spot where the tragedy occurred. Now most of us would have been so sad! But Horatio Spafford in dealing with his own grief over the loss of his daughters, sat down and penned that famous hymn that you probably know: It is Well with My Soul. Despite such a loss, such darkness he could sing that it was well with his soul!

Remember these words…
‘When peace like a river attendeth my way,
When sorrows like sea billows roll,
Whatever my lot thou has taught me to say,
“It is well, it is well with my soul.”’

When you know Jesus and love Him with all of your heart, it is the Spirit of God that gives you peace when the sadness of this life strikes at your heart…

• A  spouse or a child dies unexpectedly.
• A child rejects your training and moral guidance.
• Illness that can’t be treated successfully comes to you.
• You have a financial crisis.
• Your partner leaves you or dies.

Or like Paul you are left totally incapacitated by foot stocks, you’re imprisoned and can’t move. Now this may be figurative, not actual reality… but you will know about personal imprisonment.

Darkness Answers
This is what you are to do—

Follow a biblical example. Praise and pray… or if you like pray and praise! Asking do I have a scripture for this? I do! In fact I have three—

• ‘Therefore by Him let us continually offer the sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of our lips, giving thanks to His name’(Hebrews 13:15).
• ‘I waited patiently for the Lord; and He inclined to me, and heard my cry. He also brought me up out of a horrible pit, out of the miry clay, and set my feet upon a rock, and established my steps. He has put a new song in my mouth— praise to our God’ (Psalm 40:1-3a).
• And Acts 16 above!

And I have a prayer for any ‘imprisoned for righteousness sake.’ Do you, dear reader?

Now you’re probably not imprisoned like Paul and Silas (although Christians are elsewhere in this dark world!). But… do you feel troubled in some dark way at the moment? Can you joyfully sing in the darkness as Paul and Silas did?

After you read the above, I trust you can and discover God’s peace.

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Dr Richard Winter pastors The Connection Church, Huntington Beach, California. Link: OnlinerConnect@gmail.com  
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