If you have 5 minutes!
Read Acts 4:23-31
23 On their release, Peter and John went back to their own people and reported all that the chief priests and the elders had said to them. 24 When they heard this, they raised their voices together in prayer to God. “Sovereign Lord,” they said, “you made the heaven and the earth and the sea, and everything in them. 25 You spoke by the Holy Spirit through the mouth of your servant, our father David: “‘Why do the nations rage and the peoples plot in vain? 26 The kings of the earth rise up and the rulers band together against the Lord and against his anointed one.’ 27 Indeed Herod and Pontius Pilate met together with the Gentiles and the people of Israel in this city to conspire against your holy servant Jesus, whom you anointed. 28 They did what your power and will had decided beforehand should happen. 29 Now, Lord, consider their threats and enable your servants to speak your word with great boldness. 30 Stretch out your hand to heal and perform signs and wonders through the name of your holy servant Jesus.” 31 After they prayed, the place where they were meeting was shaken. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke the word of God boldly.
I used to work at a life skills centre for young people who were unable to access either work or further education. This was rewarding work but definitely had its ups and downs. One particular down I remember clearly: we had lost control; there were chairs being turned over; raised voices; accusations that we’d never done anything to help them, we didn’t care, everything we did was wrong and so on! For someone who’s not a conflict fan (in that I find it uncomfortable rather than I don’t think it has any value!), I was way out of my comfort zone – what was happening was what I had, for some time, feared and now there it was, playing out with no seeming way to calm things down.
The next day, I attended the teaching course I’d been taking and this week it was the turn of the mini-teach: a 20-minute slot in which we could teach anything we wanted to the rest of the group. Sometime back, I’d decided to teach something from the Bible and had been dreading it for weeks: What will people think? Will it go terribly? Will people be offended? And yet, when it came to it I had an amazing sense of peace; however badly it went, there was no way it was going to be as difficult and uncomfortable as the previous day’s events! And so, for that brief moment, I felt a fresh freedom. I’d faced one of my worst fears and survived. In comparison this mini-teach seemed like a breeze!
Now, sadly, this sense of freedom didn’t last too long but it did teach me a lot. The age-old classic really is true: the best way to overcome your fears is to face them! (Although being true doesn’t necessarily make this any easier!!!)
The reason I say all of this is that, when I picture Peter and John going back to the others and reporting on what had happened, I get the sense that rather than knock the confidence out of them, their brush with the authorities has spurred them on. They’ve faced their first set back, survived (even come out on top!) and are ready to go again.
- Are there difficulties that you’ve faced that God has used for good in some way? What does this show us about God? Does the fact that God can use even difficulties for good mean that these difficulties are any less difficult (if that makes sense!)?
- How do you feel when you have opportunities to share your faith in Christ with others? Does the emotion of fear factor into this at all? If so, maybe we can imitate the disciples by asking God to grant us boldness in this.
Pray for people you know who don’t know of God’s love in Christ and ask God to help you show or say something of him to them this week.
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