The Believer's Prayer

 PRAYER PRACTICE 

Lectio – Read today’s passage through once. Then spend some time praying and asking God to show you what you need to pay attention to in the text. Read it again. Now ask God to help you see what this text, and the part that has stood out, may mean for you. Don’t expect to get a clear word every time but always be ready to really hear from God through His Word.

DAILY READING

Acts 4:13–31

DEVOTION / REFLECTION

In the Name of Jesus

by Tom Richards

“By what power or what name did you do this?”  In today’s reading we find Peter and John before the “rulers, the elders and the teachers of the law” being questioned about the miraculous healing of a lame man (see Acts 3:1-10).  Peter answers this question in Acts 4:10:  “then know this, you and all the people of Israel:  It is by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified but whom God raised from the dead, that this man stands before you healed.”  In Acts 4:12 Peter goes further and states:  “Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no name under heaven given to mankind by which we must be saved.”

The Jewish leaders respond in Acts 4:18:  “then they called them in again and commanded them not to speak or teach at all in the name of Jesus.”  After being released, Peter and John join the believers and pray to God.  They conclude their prayer asking him to “Stretch out your hand to heal and perform signs and wonders through the name of your holy servant Jesus.”

What is it about the name of Jesus?  The name that has the power to heal.  The name that has the power to save.  The name that often brings opposition from unbelievers.  The name that we, as his followers, base our trust and hope in, just like the believers in Acts 4.  And, the name that even in 2021 can cost believers relationships, livelihoods, earthly goods, and in some cases their lives. 

In Acts 4:20 Peter and John take a stand for the name.  “As for us, we cannot help speaking about what we have seen and heard.”  In Acts 4:29 Peter, John and other believers pray “Now, Lord, consider their threats and enable you servants to speak your word with great boldness.”  I wonder, can we say the same?  Are we willing to proclaim Jesus’ name?  Perhaps our prayer should also be that God would enable us to speak his word with great boldness.

I recently read an article by Rabbi Jonathan Cahn, a messianic Jew, which concluded with words that seem to build on today’s reading and were an encouragement to me: “It is time to live unhindered, uncompromised, unbound, bold, and all out on fire and mighty in the power of the living God, for thus says the Lord, ‘Arise, shine, for your light has come, and the glory of the Lord has risen upon you.  Deep darkness shall cover the earth, but the glory of God shall rise upon you’ (Cf. Isaiah 60:1-2).  In the Name above every name that is named, the Name of Yeshua Hamashiach; Jesus the Messiah, the Way, the Truth, and the Life; the King above all kings, the Lord of all, the Hope of the ages, and the answer to every life; the Star of Jacob, the Prince of life, the glory of Israel, the Lion of the Tribe of Judah; the Name that will remain above all names when all is passed away, Yeshua, Jesus, the same yesterday, today and forever.  Amen”

Lord, teach us how to live unhindered, uncompromised, unbound and bold, and all out on fire for Jesus!