When life is tough by Deborah Duncan

Author:Deborah Duncan
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781781284261
Publisher: Lion Hudson
Published: 2021-04-02T00:00:00+00:00

Paul reminds us to trust God. He did not know what would happen when he and Silas were put in jail, but they decided to trust God. We may think things will never change. Have you ever felt like you are in prison like Paul and Silas? We can trust God for his care and protection. Sometimes he answers our prayers in an amazing way!

CHAPTER FOUR

PAUL’S FINAL JOURNEY

Paul’s third journey was a longer trip than the previous two. He went back to places he had visited on his first two journeys, encouraging the churches and visiting friends. The book of Acts in the Bible tells us that he spent a lot of his time in an ancient city port called Ephesus. Paul told the people about Jesus but some of them were worried that if people started to follow Jesus, they would stop buying statues of the made-up Greek gods. One man, who had made a lot of money by selling these statues, was furious that he would lose sales. He stirred up the people’s anger, telling them lies and confusing them. Paul had to leave and went on to visit other towns and cities on his last long journey. There were some places Paul wanted to go to, but he found out they were unsafe to visit.

Paul headed back to Jerusalem but there he was beaten. People lied about what he had done, so he was imprisoned, and moved from prison to prison. He also stood before lots of different rulers, who were unsure of what to do with him. Paul had Roman citizenship because he was born in Tarsus, which was a free city in Rome. This meant he had more rights than other Jewish people, and he was entitled to a legal trial where people would have to listen to what he had to say.

Paul must have been exhausted from all his trips and scared by the way people treated him. However, he did not focus on the bad things that were going on but decided to remind himself of how much God loved him. Paul told everyone he met about God’s love. He was moved from jail to jail for about two whole years! Paul didn’t get angry or say anything unkind about those who treated him badly.

Eventually, the Roman rulers decided to send Paul to Rome in the country of Italy, which was the capital of their lands. It was the city where all the big decisions were made and where the main court was. Some of the people wanted to kill Paul but they could only do this by accusing him of treason. Others were unsure what to do. Jerusalem was quite a distance from Rome. If you go by plane today it would take you three and a half hours – that’s half a day at school!

So Paul was taken with a lot of other prisoners and put on a boat that would sail from Israel to Italy. The journey in those days would usually take over a month.

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