Okay, so today I was not up at 4 a.m. (Praise the Lord!), but I didn't let that stop me. When the "baby alarm" went off I hopped up and started Acts chapter 4.
The tension is building between the apostles and the religious leaders. Peter and John are not quietly converting people in a dark corner somewhere. They are in the temple, and about 5,000 men have believed after witnessing the miracle of the lame man made whole! Talk about fruitful witnessing!
The religious leaders confront them with the question, "Where is your authority to do this coming from?", which was well within their rights to question anyone rising up and claiming to be a prophet. But they take no glory for themselves. Peter uses it as another opportunity, being led by the Holy Ghost, to preach Christ. Who is their authority? Jesus of Nazareth, the same one who you crucified and God raised from the dead. In His name only is there salvation. Peter knew it, and he boldly shared what he knew with those around him.
It's all about Jesus!
The miracle couldn't be denied so the religious leaders try to silence the voice proclaiming Christ. Christ cannot be silenced and Peter tells them just that.
"We cannot but speak the things which we have seen and heard."The crowd gives glory to God. The believers give glory to God and pray for His help, His boldness to continue preaching and the power to continue healing even though they are facing persecution from the very ones who claim to believe in God. And what happened?
When they prayed, God answered.
Ah...herein lies the key that so many of us are missing today. We want God's help but we don't ask for it. We ask for it, but we don't truly believe that God can answer our prayers. Or we only pray for what we believe is in the realm of God's possibilities. The apostles prayed and God gave them "great power" and "great grace" (v. 33).
This past Sunday my husband challenged our Sunday School class to take a piece of paper and write down three prayer requests that we believed were impossible. I'm sure many thought that he would collect them and pray for us, but his response was, "Now that you have written them down...start praying for them!
Our God can do the impossible!
As I spoke to a friend last night I challenged her to take the prayer challenge as well.
We need God! We all have things in our lives that seem or are humanly impossible. It's as simple as that. We can't do it without His help.
We need Jesus! Yesterday we were challenged to stop begging from this world. The government can't do it, our self-motivation is not enough, sometimes even our well-meaning families cannot provide what we need to make it through.
We need the Holy Spirit! When you are feeling down and all alone, do not fall prey to the Devil's lies. As believers, we have the Source of all comfort!
Start believing, start praying, and be bold in praising God for what He, and only He can do, is doing, and will do in your life!
Be blessed!
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