THE STORY OF JESUS: Acts 4:23-31
“Enable your servants to speak your word with great boldness.” (Acts 4:29)
What would we pray for when we are threatened because of our faith?
(I suspect many Christian’s today would pray for safety, not boldness).
I’ve prayed for more boldness when things were safe and I was hesitant.
But to ask for more boldness after being threatened and tortured?
These guys are on fire, absolutely confident in God and in Jesus.
Is this how people who make up a story about Jesus’ resurrection behave?
They really believe it, and are willing to suffer for it… and die.
Our prayers today are lame in comparison to this prayer.
We constantly ask for things, but not usually for greater boldness.
If God IS the sovereign God, and Jesus IS the resurrected Lord…
How will this affect my prayers, what will I pray for?
As Jesus followers, we are seeking God’s kingdom first, not our comfort.
Pray for more boldness, more Holy Spirit power working in and through us!
I sense the Lord challenging me to pray for more boldness and fire!
What do you sense the Lord saying to you?
PRAYER
Lord, my prayers seem so tame, almost lame, in comparison. Light the fire in our hearts to melt the lead in our feet!
The passage starts with what was happening but the Lord knows all that. It shows that I also need to lay all things before the Lord. And the Lord answered and they were filled with the Spirit just like the people were at Pentecost. In both instances they spoke the word boldly.
God enabled.
God empowered.
Spirit filled.
SpiritLed.
And I too need to go forward in that power each day.
Prayerfully enabled.
Emmanuel.
Spirit of God, dwell thou within my heart;
Wean it from earth, through all its pulses move;
Stoop to my weakness, mighty as thou art,
And make me love thee as I ought to love.