Boldly

 DEVOTION

THE ACTS OF THE APOSTLES

BOLDLY

Acts 4:23-31

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." 31 After they prayed, the place where they were meeting was shaken. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke the word of God boldly.

NIV

There is something to be said for praying the scriptures, as we see here, when the believers quoted from one of David's Psalms. However, we know that God already knew David's words, since it was the Holy Spirit who spoke through David, as well as every word that has ever been recorded in the scriptures; in fact, we believe God could quote every word he has spoken. This would include all that the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit have ever said, or that is recorded of what they said. However, although they included the words spoken by David, the key request of their prayer is for them to speak with boldness, and for the hand of God to be stretched out to heal and perform miraculous signs and wonders through the name of Jesus. We know God answers prayer, and that makes us wonder why we are not praying for boldness to speak out about Jesus, about the free gift of God, salvation. We also wonder why we have not asked the Lord, the maker of heaven and earth, the one to whom everything in the earth belongs, to stretch out his hand and heal, and to perform miraculous signs and wonders. The question that is before us is whether we truly believe God will do all that. We call ourselves Christians, but are we believers? Those who were there with Peter and John were new to their faith in Jesus, and they had already seen a lame man healed by the power of Jesus' name. Have we accepted living as crippled Christians? Why should we? Because there is power in the name of Jesus, and we can both go boldly out and speak the truth of God, and go before him asking for his healing and for miraculous signs and wonders. Can we even imagine what the world would think of us if God were doing mighty things for us, in us, and through us? Can we fathom what our lives would look like, being filled with the Holy Spirit and speaking the word of God boldly?