Acts 16:16–19
Stop.
Take three deep breaths. When you got out of bed this morning, did you feel like you had a choice about how you would spend your day? Why or why not?
Listen.
Acts 16:16–19 (NRSV)
16 One day, as we were going to the place of prayer, we met a slave-girl who had a spirit of divination and brought her owners a great deal of money by fortune-telling. 17 While she followed Paul and us, she would cry out, “These men are slaves of the Most High God, who proclaim to you a way of salvation.” 18 She kept doing this for many days. But Paul, very much annoyed, turned and said to the spirit, “I order you in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her.” And it came out that very hour. 19 But when her owners saw that their hope of making money was gone, they seized Paul and Silas and dragged them into the marketplace before the authorities.
Reflect.
This weekend we are looking at a very complex story from Acts 16:16-34. In this devo I want to focus on one character: The slave-girl.
Let that title soak in for a minute. Slave-girl.
When she woke up in the mornings, she didn’t get to choose what she wanted to do. She was possessed by two things. First, she has a spirit of divination. That means there was a spiritual force at work in her that allowed her to see things about people that others couldn’t see. Sounds like a cool super-power, but not if it controls you. Second, her abilities turned her into a commodity that people with power felt entitled to exploit.
Every day she was forced to do what her owners said, and what the spirit of divination said, so that her owners could profit from the manipulation and exploitation of her body.
The disturbing part of this story is that we don’t get to know what happens to this girl when she is set free from the spirit. She was still owned by her masters, but now she was worthless. Did they kill her? Did she escape? I hope that she was able to make it to Lydia’s house (read about Lydia in the preceding paragraph of chapter 16.)
Millions of children in our world, today, are treated like her. Let that sink in. How can we free them?
Pray.
Gracious God, we pray for all the nameless children in our world. Show them that they are your beloved children. Help us know how to help them find their way to love and life.
Carry On.
I realize this was a downer devo. May you move into your day in two ways: First, give thanks to God if you have the freedom to decide your own day. Second, open your eyes and see if you notice anyone like this girl within your own sphere. Pray for them and ask for wisdom.