A Prayer for Boldness
Acts 4:29-30 And now, Lord, look at their threats, and grant to your servants to speak your word with all boldness, while you stretch out your hand to heal, and signs and wonders are performed through the name of your holy servant Jesus.”
For most of us, persecution isn’t something that we think about all too often. Elsewhere, in places where people barely dare to whisper of it, it’s simply part of life. What shocks us is when persecution lands on our hitherto safe middle-class doorstep.
On July 26, 2016, Father Jacques Hamel, an 85-year-old Roman Catholic priest, was murdered while celebrating Mass in a small town in Normandy, France. Two terrorists entered the church and, after taking hostages, forced Father Hamel to kneel before his congregation … at which point they executed him.
Shocking though that is, there’s nothing new in that. It’s been happening to Christians since the first century.
Yesterday we chatted about the Apostles Peter and John who’d been arrested and threatened for telling people about Jesus. Rather than cowering at the threats, rather than acquiescing to the demands of their persecutors, they and their friends instead confidently proclaimed the sovereignty of God, the one who loved them enough to send Jesus into this world to die for them.
And they went on to pray like this:
Acts 4:29-30 And now, Lord, look at their threats, and grant to your servants to speak your word with all boldness, while you stretch out your hand to heal, and signs and wonders are performed through the name of your holy servant Jesus.” (NRSV)
Wow! They prayed for boldness to continue to proclaim the Good News of Jesus in the face of persecution and for the power of God to work miraculously through them.
When persecution comes your way, whatever form it may take, be bold because God is in that place with you.
That’s His Word. Fresh … for you … today.
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