What happened to Paul and Silas (called Sylvanus in Thessalonians) after they were dragged into the marketplace before the authorities (vv. 22-24)?
“The crowd joined in the attack, the authorities ordered them to be stripped and beaten, they were severely flogged, they were imprisoned in an inner cell, and their feet were put in stocks.”
Instead of once bitten, twice shy; they were once beaten, twice bold.
They didn’t just think it; they knew it.
They were not driven by
“error
“impure motives
“desire to trick them (3)
“trying to please men (4)”
They were driven by
“God’s approval in entrusting them with His gospel (4)
“trying to please God (4)”
Now complete verse 4: ‘God, who “tests our hearts”’
Let the rules of Romans 8:27 drench you with wonder: “‘And He who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints in accordance with God’s will.’” While He searches hearts, what is the Holy Spirit doing? “interceding for us”
God’s fingertips strung our DNA. He is not naïve about us.
What are a few things you think He’s searching out and testing our hearts to find?
“I’m not sure if it’s good thoughts, motives, behaviors, etc. to nurture and reward or bad thoughts, motives, behaviors, etc. to reveal to us and encourage us to repent from and root out or perhaps both.”
Don’t you hate [failure]? When did you last feel it?
“Last night when I once again woke up on the couch with my laptop at 3:30 because I tried to do ‘just a little bit more’ than I could stay awake for. At least it was Thursday, so Daniel didn’t need to get up early today.”
If we feel like failures, we’ll act like failures, and, if we let that condemnation go unchecked, we’ll make our next decision out of the same perceived defeat.
We can’t let Satan shut us in or he wins that battle. He’s trying to make wound-lickers out of warriors. 
Dearest Rachel –
Compared to some of the homework from the previous week’s sessions, this particular day’s notes are fairly slim, mostly involving a review of the text, and your answers being based on the passage being covered.
It is curious, however, that the last item you underlined emphasizes that we are not meant to be licking our wounds over our failures, but moving forward against Satan in battle. This, despite the fact that the last question the section asks of you is when you last dealt with failure – and your response that it had just happened the night before (although it was mitigated by the fact that Daniel didn’t have an early class at Harper to get to, so your subsequent late rising didn’t result in any serious consequences). How does the author expect you to move on from failure right after having you bring your last one up?
Then again, maybe that’s the point; it needs to be brought up in order to be dismissed. Did you fail? Yes. That’s fine; we all do. Let’s move on now, like we’re supposed to. Every battle has its setbacks; if it’s not the terrain or the logistics, it’s the fact that we have an enemy to deal with, and as is said, no (human) plan survives contact with them.
Of course, it’s not the humans that are our enemies, despite the fact that there were those that treated Paul and Silas badly in this particular scene. There were (and still are) spirits opposed to their Maker egging the men on – and sometimes, they encourage us to behave badly as well, not that we always need encouragement to do so. War is hell – spiritual warfare almost literally so – and even seasoned warriors grow weary of it. It doesn’t necessarily take much persuasion to get us to drop our swords.
But just as there are spirits guiding the opposition, so too is the Spirit leading us, if we’re willing and able to hear and listen to Him and His orders. Paul was pointing out that he was attuned to his Commander-in-Chief as he proclaimed the Word to the Thessalonians in spite of the opposition he faced; not trying to please men, but rather the God who had sent him to them. Even dealing with the resistance didn’t stop him; while he and Silas didn’t sing down the jail like in Philippi, he did continue to press on, and as a result, a church grew in Thessalonika, large enough and enduring enough (although maybe also dealing with enough issues) for him to write to twice, with those words echoing down over the centuries in order to guide us in turn.
I realize that you have run your course, and are now perfected in Him, but I would ask of you (and our mutual Father) for guidance while I and Daniel still have our orders; that we would know what they are (easier said than done) and carry them out to His satisfaction.
