Title: How to Handle Your Big & Small Problems
Text:
Acts 4:18-20 (ESV)
18 So they called them and charged them not to speak or teach at all in the name of Jesus.
19 But Peter and John answered them, "Whether it is right in the sight of God to listen to you rather than to God, you must judge,
20 for we cannot but speak of what we have seen and heard."
Observation:
The Apostles Peter and John had a huge problem. After healing a man in the name of Jesus, they were brought before the authorities of the Government, and ordered to cease preaching in the name of Jesus.
Notice what these disciples did when they were facing this opposition from people who had the power to punish them severely. They gather with other Christ followers, and they prayed.
Acts 4:29 (ESV)
29 And now, Lord, look upon their threats and grant to your servants to continue to speak your word with all boldness,
When God's people pray the power of God moves in supernatural power. God hears and answers the prayers of His people, and He shows up in power.
Acts 4:31 (ESV)
31 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.
Notice how God's people prayed. They had been warned not to speak or teach at all in the name of Jesus. Who do you think they obeyed? They chose to obey God.
They did this, "And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and continued to speak the word of God with boldness".
Prayer:
Father, hallowed be Your name. Father, I ask that You would quicken and quiet our hearts before You. Father, I ask that You stir and steer our hearts to take our problems to You in prayer first, and not last.
Father, make the desires of our hearts to be like the desires of Your heart so that when we pray we will know that You will hear, and answer our prayers.
Psalm 37:4 (ESV)
4 Delight yourself in the LORD, and he will give you the desires of your heart.
Psalm 37:16 (ESV)
16 Better is the little that the righteous has than the abundance of many wicked.
Father, create in us the desire to delight in You, to cast all of our cares upon You, and to be grateful, and thankful for what we have. In the mighty name of Jesus I pray, Amen.
Isaiah 55:11 (KJV)
11 So shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth: it shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it.
Read the Daily Devotional by Herb Cotton; click here:
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