PLEASE READ THIS FIRST: Acts 4:23-31
What do you sense the Lord saying to you in this passage?
“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 Christians 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’s 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 sovereign, 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!
PRAYER
Lord, my prayers seem so tame, almost lame, in comparison. Light the fire in my heart to melt the lead in my feet!
“Stretch out your hand to heal and perform signs and wonders through the name of your holy servant Jesus.”
The apostles and believers prayed this prayer and the place rocked – “the place where they were meeting was shaken. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke the word of God boldly.” It is through Jesus that we can persevere and we can speak boldly. I’m timid and then tend to avoid confrontation – but I need to be bold and to stand – and I know I can’t do it on my own – in fact that would be detrimental. HS help me and guide to be bold enough to pray as the apostles and believers did in the face of persecution by their own people!
Coming together in the presence of the Lord, sharing the happenings and praying for power from on high to proclaim the Good News. God certainly answered their request by showing His presence by shaking up the place and filling them with His Spirit. We too have that gift. I just need to do and rely upon Him. He enables people to speak boldly. He enables.
He is able, more than able
To accomplish what concerns me today
He is able, more than able
To handle anything that comes my way
He is able, more than able
To do much more than I could ever dream
He is able, more than able
To make me what He wants me to be