How the Lost Come to Faith

Daily Reading:  Acts 4

But many of those who had heard the word believed, and the number of the men came to about five thousand. (Acts 4.4)

Devotional Thought: After Peter and John had proclaimed healing for a crippled man, the religious authorities brought them in for questioning: “How did you do this?”  Peter and John did not hesitate: “We did this by the name of Jesus Christ” (v. 10)!  Thousands more were saved because of this miraculous healing and courageous witness!

Thousands more were saved?  That’s right.  In Acts 2, three thousand were saved on one occasion.  Now here in Acts 4, two thousand more come in faith to Christ!  We may wonder why the church today isn't growing as rapidly as the church then.  But in reality, it is.  The church is seeing explosive growth in places like the Horn of Africa.  Latin America and Asia are seeing tremendous growth, too.  Perhaps we should ask more specifically why the American church isn’t growing like the New Testament church!

Why are we not seeing more people saved in America?  Is it because we don’t go regularly to the place and time of prayer?  Is it because we are unwilling to proclaim hope and healing in the name of Jesus, afraid we will be labeled as religious extremists?  Is it because we are more concerned with our own rights and comforts than we are with lost and broken lives around us? 

Peter and John were willing to be put in jail!  And when they were released they didn’t go to their lawyer and bring a civil suit against the authorities.  No, they went to God in prayer!  And they didn’t pray for persecution to stop.  They prayed for their boldness to bloom and for God's miracles to multiply!

Will you pray for the lost to come to faith?

Prayer: Jesus, I do pray that my lost family and friends would come to know you.  Use me, O Lord, as an instrument of your salvation in the world today.  Amen.

Psalm of the Day: Psalm 69:22-28

22 Let their own table before them become a snare; and when they are at peace, let it become a trap.

23 Let their eyes be darkened, so that they cannot see, and make their loins tremble continually.

24 Pour out your indignation upon them, and let your burning anger overtake them.

25 May their camp be a desolation; let no one dwell in their tents.

26 For they persecute him whom you have struck down, and they recount the pain of those you have wounded.

27 Add to them punishment upon punishment; may they have no acquittal from you.

28 Let them be blotted out of the book of the living; let them not be enrolled among the righteous.