READING:
One-year plan: 2 Chronicles 9-11, Acts 4
Two-year plan: Deuteronomy 29-30, Luke 4:31-44
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They could not help but speak what they had seen and heard about Jesus. Those are the words of arrested disciples in Acts 4. Told not to preach anymore, they responded simply by saying, “We can’t keep silent.” So much had happened within them and through them. They knew the power of the resurrected Lord. They had definitively experienced the work of the Spirit. They had seen God work through them to heal a lame man. So much had happened that to have been silent would have been a lie.
They could not deny God’s work, nor could they stop talking about it. Indeed, the early believers prayed for even more boldness to keep telling the story after they had been warned; they had no intention of being silent.
How different that is from us so many times. We know we should speak of Him. We, too, have experienced His grace and mercy. We also have a story to tell. Nevertheless, many of us in places where sharing the gospel openly is permissible fail to ever get there. If we do talk about Jesus, it’s most often with other believers—not necessarily with people who could arrest us. Perhaps we should pray these words to God, too: “Grant that your servants may speak your word with all boldness” (Acts 4:29).
PERSONAL REFLECTION: Do you speak the gospel with boldness to others?
DAILY PRAYER: “Father, make me bold.”
TOMORROW’S READINGS:
One-year plan: 2 Chronicles 12-16, Acts 5:1-32
Two-year plan: Deuteronomy 31, Luke 5:1-11