Friday of the 6th Week of Easter
The Lord said to Paul in the night by a vision, "Don't be afraid, but speak and don't be silent; For I am with you, and no one will attack you to harm you, for I have many people in this city."
He lived there a year and six months, teaching the word of God among them. But when Gallio was proconsul of Achaia, the Jews with one accord rose up against Paul and brought him before the judgment seat, Saying, "This man persuades men to worship God contrary to the law."
But when Paul was about to open his mouth, Gallio said to the Jews, "If indeed it were a matter of wrong or of wicked crime, you Jews, it would be reasonable that I should bear with you; But if they are questions about words and names and your own law, look to it yourselves. For I don't want to be a judge of these matters." So he drove them from the judgment seat.
Then all the Greeks seized Sosthenes, the ruler of the synagogue, and beat him before the judgment seat. Gallio didn't care about any of these things.
Paul, having stayed after this many more days, took his leave of the brothers, and sailed from there for Syria, together with Priscilla and Aquila. He shaved his head in Cenchreae, for he had a vow.
For the Lord Most High is awesome. He is a great King over all the earth. He subdues nations under us, And peoples under our feet.
He chooses our inheritance for us, The glory of Jacob whom he loved. Selah. God has gone up with a shout, The Lord with the sound of a trumpet.
Sing praises to God! Sing praises! Sing praises to our King! Sing praises! For God is the King of all the earth. Sing praises with understanding.
Most certainly I tell you that you will weep and lament, but the world will rejoice. You will be sorrowful, but your sorrow will be turned into joy. A woman, when she gives birth, has sorrow because her time has come. But when she has delivered the child, she doesn't remember the anguish any more, for the joy that a human being is born into the world. Therefore you now have sorrow, but I will see you again, and your heart will rejoice, and no one will take your joy away from you.
"In that day you will ask me no questions. Most certainly I tell you, whatever you may ask of the Father in my name, he will give it to you.
Fear has a way of silencing us, doesn't it? Paul receives a vision precisely because he needs encouragement to keep speaking God's word in Corinth. The Lord's promise is both tender and practical: "Don't be afraid, but speak... for I am with you." Notice how divine assurance doesn't remove Paul from difficulty—he still faces opposition, still gets dragged before tribunals—but it transforms his capacity to persevere through it.
This connects beautifully with Jesus's words about sorrow becoming joy. The image of childbirth is particularly powerful because it captures something essential about how transformation works. Labor pains don't disappear or get minimized—they're real, intense, sometimes overwhelming. But they serve a purpose that reframes everything that came before. The woman doesn't forget the pain because it wasn't significant; she doesn't remember it the same way because joy has given it new meaning.
Consider how this plays out in our own lives. We often want God to remove our struggles entirely, but these readings suggest something different. What emerges is a pattern where difficulty becomes the very context in which God's presence is most deeply felt and most powerfully expressed.
Paul's year and a half in Corinth, teaching despite opposition, mirrors our own call to persistent faithfulness. Whether we're parents navigating sleepless nights, workers facing difficult colleagues, or anyone trying to live with integrity in complicated circumstances—the invitation remains the same: keep speaking truth, keep showing love, keep trusting that God is present even when the outcome is uncertain.
The psalm's call to "sing praises with understanding" suggests that our joy isn't naive optimism but deep recognition of God's sovereignty working through all circumstances.
What fears might be keeping you from speaking or acting with love today? How might your current struggles be preparing space for unexpected joy?