They had every reason...

Acts 16: 25-26
And at midnight Paul and Silas prayed, and sang praises unto God: and the prisoners heard them And suddenly there was a great earthquake, so that the foundations of the prison were shaken: and immediately all the doors were opened, and every one's bands were loosed.

After Paul and Silas cast out the spirit of divination from a woman who was possessed they were charged by the magistrates and were commanded to be beaten and cast into prison. While they were in prison they had every reason to be down and discouraged because of what had happened to them but they weren’t. Instead they saw this moment of weakness as a moment to glorify and praise God. The difficulties and sufferings that we face every day shouldn’t be an excuse for us to drift away from God, but instead it should draw us nearer to Him. When we praise God in our time of hurt and need we are in fact weakening the power of the devil; as he uses those times as an opportunity to defeat us. The Lord knows our sufferings and He can those who call upon His name.

S. Mlilo