READING: 2 Chronicles 10-13, Acts 4:23-5:11
I read about prayer a lot. I enjoy biographies of great prayer warriors. I’m always challenged by stories of national and worldwide revivals that occur seemingly on the wings of the prayers of a few people. That’s one reason I’m captured by the prayer in Acts 4 today as I was in Solomon’s prayer in yesterday’s devotion.
The believers had already been facing opposition, and the authorities forbade them to preach the Jesus message from that point out. The disciples, however – despite the fact they were uneducated and untrained men – stood strong in their faith. They knew they couldn’t stop speaking about Jesus. What the believers did do, though, was pray together for continued boldness to keep proclaiming the message. The result? The text tells us, “the place where they were assembled was shaken, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak the word of God boldly” (Acts 4:31).
That’s the kind of prayer I want in my life and in my church today—the kind that leads to powerful displays of God’s glory and unashamed boldness among God’s people. The world (including much of the Christian world, I fear) would not know what to do with that kind of praying. Nor would the devil . . . .
PRAYER: “Father, grant us persistence in prayer, power in our relationship with You, and boldness to speak about Jesus.”
DAILY ACTION STEP: Pray for boldness today.
TOMORROW’S READING: 2 Chronicles 14-18, Acts 5:12-42
