S154P10 – Sincerity in prayer: the early believers
Acts 4:29-31
“And now, Lord, look upon their threats and grant to your servants to continue 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.” And when they had prayed, the place in which they were gathered together was shaken, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and continued to speak the word of God with boldness.
Peter and John had done a very good thing. They were asked by a lame beggar for alms, but they had none. What they offered instead was what they did have, which was the power of prayer. They prayed for this man to be healed, and it was so. Word had spread about this healing and had reached the religious leaders. They were apprehended and interrogated about what they had done. Peter and John did not back down but professed Christ openly. After their release, they returned to the other believers and told their story of what they had endured. It was the kind of treatment all believers could expect to endure, and it caused them to pray this prayer.
Prayer can be tricky, and that is why it is important to have a heart aligned with God so that we can pray for his will. The believers in this instance could have prayed for God to take down the religious leaders of their day and stop this kind of oppression. They could have prayed for the Lord to place them in a different circumstance. Instead, they prayed that they would have the boldness necessary to keep doing God’s work in the face of this opposition. It is a question of which result would glorify God more. Does He get more glory when his people are able to do his work easily, or is it more glorifying for him to give them what they need to do his work well even through difficulty?
The goal of the council was to shut down Peter and John and all the other believers who were part of this Christian movement. The result was a motivation to pray for greater boldness, which they received. This story is certainly not a picture of all of life’s difficulties but specifically about the spiritual warfare we must endure to complete God’s work. The pressure should move us to seek boldness instead of escape or an easy road. The goal should be to obtain the victory in the way that brings God the greatest glory. Father, give us the attitude of your believers here to seek whatever we need to face head-on and endure every opposition to our faith.