Text: Acts 4: 29 - 31
"And now Lord, listen to their threats. Lord, help us, your servants, to speak your word without fear. Help us to be brave by showing us your power to heal. Give proofs and make miracles happen by the power of Jesus, your holy servant." After they had prayed, the place where they were meeting was shaken. They were all filled with the Holy Spirit, and they spoke God's word without fear.
Devotional:
This moring I was reading the first 4 chapters of Acts and have read all of Acts before. As I came to this passage, I was thinking by now Peter and John where already given a hard time for the first time by the Priests, Pharasees and the rest of the High Cousel for healing the crippled/lame man in Jesus Name and preaching to the crowed in the temple, and I know from here on in the persecution just gets worse.
What I come to the conclusion, is that we here in North America as Christians generally have it so good. If my faith were threatened like in the passage from Acts, how would it hold up? How equipped would I be to give the right answer when challenged? Would I be willing to spend a night in jail for my faith? Sometimes I think we as a society even as Christian don't realize how spoiled we are. We have so many things to rely on (especially non-believers), that we think we don't need God or God often comes in second or third. I know in my life it is like that most of the time. So if I am to give God my all, how much does he require of me? How much am I willing to give?
From being a new Christian on at the age of 13 or 14 I asked myself: If all these miraculous things where happening in the book of Acts, and today it is the same Holy Spirit available with the same power for us to extend to others, why isn't more happening? Or at least that's how I feel. And I think it is because we, even I rely on so many other things than God, where in a 3rd World country God is most of the time if not all of the time all they have and God shows up, like in the book of Act.
I pray for all of us who need it that we can be open to more of God and less of us and our materialism in our lives (John 3:30).
Thank you Marc for sharing your thoughts. It is so true that we tend to rely on other things more than God. This is a good reminder that we do need to look to God for our comfort, and not material things.
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