- The Wait Room
- Posts
- Joy That Doesn't Make Sense
Joy That Doesn't Make Sense
Experiencing the Joy of the Lord, the kind that doesn't make sense.
Jennifer Paulino
May 19, 2025 • Estimated Reading Time: 5 minutes
This Week’s Form Check FocusJoy Where You Shouldn’t Have AnyThere’s a kind of joy that doesn’t make sense. The kind you find not in answered prayers, but in prison cells — literal or metaphorical. This week, we’re sitting with Paul and Silas. Not just because they sang through their suffering, but because their influence increased through it. Their worship in chains became someone else’s doorway to salvation. Joy in the unknown doesn’t ignore the pain — it just refuses to let it be the loudest voice in the room. When you suffer with God, He doesn’t just sustain you — He sets a stage. What you’re walking through may look like a setback, but it might be the exact place someone else finds their breakthrough. That’s not just endurance. That’s legacy. |  |
Paul and Silas in Prison
About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the other prisoners were listening to them. 26 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. 27 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. 28 But Paul shouted, “Don’t harm yourself! We are all here!”
29 The jailer called for lights, rushed in and fell trembling before Paul and Silas. 30 He then brought them out and asked, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?”
______________________________________
The Briefing
Praise That Shakes Foundations
Paul and Silas had influence before the chains, yes — preaching, casting out spirits, disrupting systems. But it’s in the prison that their influence became supernatural. Worshipping in the dark. Praising while bruised. And when the ground shook and the doors flew open, they didn’t just walk out — they led someone in. The jailer and his entire household were saved because of how they handled the pressure.
Their chains became someone else’s invitation to freedom.
That’s how God works with influence that’s surrendered to Him. He’ll give you a platform — but not the one you expected.
Not the glamorous one. The one with grit.
The one that’s built in a pit but speaks to people in palaces. The kind that teaches others how to praise even while they bleed.
I know that story well. In the past 3 years, I’ve moved three times. I’ve gone from secure jobs to seasons where I had nothing but a vision God gave me — to build something that leads people back to Him. Some days I felt chained to uncertainty.
But even in that, I learned: joy isn’t the reward at the end. Joy is the declaration that God is with me in it.
And when I worshipped Him anyway, others saw it. And some even followed.
TODAY’S FORM CHECK
Training Lesson: Where in your life do you feel imprisoned right now, and how might God be using that very place as a stage for His glory?
Start with Acts 16:16-40- Paul and Silas didn’t worship after the chains fell—they worshipped while they were still in them. God used their suffering as a setup, not just to free them, but to lead the jailer and his entire household to salvation (Acts 16:16–40).
Too often we resist suffering because we don’t see how it serves us, but kingdom thinking flips that: “Store up for yourselves treasures in heaven…” (Matthew 6:20), and “those who lead many to righteousness will shine like the stars forever” (Daniel 12:3).
Your endurance isn’t wasted—it’s building legacy beyond what you can see.______________________________________________________
Feeling the Pressure Yet? Here’s our encouragement:
When we come to Christ we have a burden that should be carried with the utmost elegance and grace. It’s not a burden to be carried alone but rather with a community of responsible believers.
If you’re locking in, bring someone with you!
Forward this. Share the link. Invite them into the tension—into the place where waiting for God becomes training with Him. We carry light, but we carry well. Let’s build this together.
Joy isn’t found in the outcome — it’s forged in the obedience.
Spiritual Supplements
Conditioning Recommendations
▶ Worship Song: In the Room by Maverick City Music
▶ Sermon of the Week: The Prison, The Purpose and The Praise | Pastor Stephen Chandler | Union Church
Reply