Jailbreak!

Daily Reading: Acts 5

They arrested the apostles and put them in the public prison... But Peter and the apostles answered, “We must obey God rather than men.” (Acts 5.18, 29)

Devotional Thought: The Apostles just keep getting into trouble!  The success of their preaching caused the High Priest to throw them into jail.  (Selfish jealousy is a terrible thing, isn’t it?)  But God sent an angel to unlock the jail with the words: Keep on preaching…  What a direct and dramatic answer to the prayer that they prayed in Acts 4: Enable us to keep preaching…  When God answered that prayer, how could they do otherwise?  They returned to the temple to preach Jesus!

There are many voices which would silence the proclamation of Jesus today.  We feel pressure from the government, pressure from our peers, pressure from our fears, pressure from our families.  We are told that we need to be tolerant of lifestyle choices made by all others.  If not, then we are accused of bigotry and hatred.  Those are labels that we do not want pinned on us as Christians. 

What are we to do?  “We must obey God rather than men.”

Most of us do not face the kind of persecution that those early disciples faced.  Nor are we suffering as are our Christian brothers and sisters in some openly hostile societies.  Why, then, are we strangely silent about Jesus?  Do people where you work or in your neighborhood or at your school know that you are a Christian?  Are you allowing societal expectations to silence you?  It’s time for a jailbreak!

Satan will want to lock you up in a prison of joyless, powerless Christianity.  Break out of that mindset, and “let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven” (Matthew 5.16).

Prayer: Grant, O Lord, that I would have the mind of Christ and the courage of your disciples so that I can say, "I must obey God rather than men."  Amen.

Psalm of the Day: Psalm 72.17-20

17 May his name endure forever, his fame continue as long as the sun! May people be blessed in him, all nations call him blessed!

18 Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel, who alone does wondrous things.

19 Blessed be his glorious name forever; may the whole earth be filled with his glory! Amen and Amen!

20 The prayers of David, the son of Jesse, are ended.