“As we were going to the place of prayer, we were met by a slave girl who had a spirit of divination …” (Acts 16:16 ESV).
Luke wrote the book of Acts to provide an orderly account of the spread of the gospel through the power of the Holy Spirit. Throughout most of Acts, he described events using the third person, speaking of what “they” did. Yet in Acts 16, the narrative suddenly changed to “we.” By this simple shift, Luke revealed that he was personally present with Paul, Silas, and Timothy during their ministry in Philippi. Luke never drew attention to himself or even signed his name to his writings. Instead, he faithfully recorded what God had done through careful investigation and eyewitness testimony. In this passage, Luke was not merely reporting what others had told him. He was describing an event he personally witnessed as he walked with the missionaries to the place of prayer. His firsthand account reminds readers that the Christian faith is rooted in real history, real places, and real people who saw God’s work with their own eyes. Through Luke’s humble obedience, the Spirit preserved nearly one-third of the New Testament for future generations.
We live in a world today where many people view the Bible as a collection of myths and legends. Luke’s eyewitness account reminds us that our faith rests on trustworthy testimony concerning the life, death, resurrection, and continuing work of Jesus Christ. We can have confidence in the reliability of Scripture because God used faithful witnesses to record His acts in history. Like Luke, we are called to humbly tell what we have seen and experienced of God’s grace. We may not write books of the Bible, but we can faithfully bear witness to Christ in our generation.
PRAYER: Dear Father, thank You for inspiring faithful servants like Luke to record Your mighty works. Strengthen our confidence in the truth of Your Word and help us to be faithful witnesses of Christ wherever You send us. May our testimony point people to Jesus and bring glory to Your name. In Jesus’ name, amen.