Stretch Out Your Hand

 DEVOTION

THE ACTS OF THE APOSTLES

STRETCH OUT YOUR HAND

Acts 4:23-30

23 On their release, Peter and John went back to their own people and reported all that the chief priests and 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 take their stand and the rulers gather 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 miraculous signs and wonders through the name of your holy servant Jesus."

NIV

This is a powerful prayer of these believers who were the people of Peter and John. We are not sure how many there were at the place where they were meeting, but they were very glad and gave God all the glory for what happened. There is no doubt that now they were very aware that the crucifixion of Jesus was indeed the plan from the begging of God for their redemption. It is interesting they refer to the Gentiles, who would most likely be the Romans and the people of the city were those who were excited by the chief priests, yelling “crucify him”. They quoted what King David had prophesied about Jesus. There spent much of their prayer in giving their Sovereign Lord all the praise and glory for this hand at work in the lives of Peter and John. After all that praise, they finally got to their petition, “Now Lord”. Even under the threats of the Sanhedrin, they wanted more boldness to be able to continue to speak out about the word of the Lord. They knew it was His mighty hand that healed and performed miraculous signs and wonders through the name of Jesus. Boldness, not to hold back no matter the consequences, speak up with confidence the word of the Lord. They were not asking for their own needs other than to have the power of God working in them so they could tell others about Jesus. It is all about spreading the word of the Lord. Have we lost the fervor of wanting boldness to speak the word of the Lord? Have we settled into this “Us four and no more” mentality, just enjoying our little church, or maybe the big mega-church, we attend and happy with our Sunday morning routine, or maybe we should call it a rut? What would happen if we prayed for God to stretch out his hand to heal and perform miraculous signs and wonders through the name of Jesus? We know what would happen, so why don’t we pray like that? It seems all we do is continue to pray for the same stuff or people every day and sometimes we might think we see healing, but it is mostly through the hand of the physician. Is that the way the mighty hand of God works today? Maybe we need to revise our prayers. Maybe we need to pray for boldness, for the Lord to stretch out His hand.