Going boldly

It wasn't a prayer I'd have expected. After Peter and John were arrested- and released - by the religious leaders in Jerusalem for preaching about Jesus, they joined with fellow believers in prayer.

But their prayer wasn't for protection or safety or comfort. Here's part of their prayer: "consider their threats and enable your servants to speak your word with great boldness." (Acts 4:29)

These early believers asked differently than we often ask for in our prayer requests. We seek comfort and safety but they asked God for great boldness and confidence.

Although I've given occasional reports about the persecuted believers in Orissa, India, I've been tempted to pray for protection and safety for them. Make the persecution go away and give them comfortable lives. That's what I'd like for them but these believers in the book of Acts challenge me.

So I've prayed for great boldness.

But then the lens swings around, as it always does, to my own life. Ugh. Do I really want to ask for boldness for myself?

Now this is getting close to meddling. How easily I worship comfort and safety and luxury.

"Beware of squatting lazily before God instead of putting up a glorious fight so that you may lay hold of His strength." Oswald Chamber's admonishment makes me squirm. Sometimes I only want to lie on the spiritual couch and eat spiritual bon-bons. I don't want to fight any glorious fight if it means living in the woods like the believers in Orissa. But when I walk along that line, I find the fire in my heart thins and my passion chills.

There's no time in the world for such laziness and I yearn for the fiery passion of those early believers. The glorious fight stokes the fires and it reaches across the distance between the Lord and myself.

I do want to fight and I am praying for boldness. Not just for believers in Orissa and beyond, but here, too, where the temptation to squat lazily before God is so powerful.

"When they saw the courage [boldness] of Peter and John and realized that they were unschooled, ordinary men, they were astonished and they took note that these men had been with Jesus.(Acts 4:13)

Keeping what they could not lose

The days held the anticipation of spring, with new fragrance and life at every turn. The sisters both looked forward to weddings within a year, easily financed by their well-placed father. To top it off, the sisters shared their new-found faith with their fiancés. The four often attended worship services together, joyfully singing and praying to their Savior.

The fly in the ointment was the year, for the sisters had the misfortune to be born into third century Rome. Their father was an important gentleman in Rome under the emperor Valerian, who reigned during an unsettled time for the empire. Whatever his motivation, Valerian massacred Christians.

Refina and Secunda, our beautiful and accomplished sisters, were engaged to Armentarius and Verinus. The two men renounced their new faith when faced with financial loss, and encouraged their fiancees’ to do the same.

This was not the first time that Rome had gone after Christians, although there had been no problems for 10 years or so. Refina and Secunda refused to deny their Savior. Disappointed with this stubbornness, the young men then reversed their bad situation. They turned in their betrothed.

Refina and Secunda were arrested and killed. No trial, no probation.

These women shed an idyllic life – the dream of many – for a brutal death. Not only were they forced to make a difficult stand for their faith, but they were betrayed by the young men they loved and trusted.

I wonder what their neighbors thought. Or the boy at the market? The soldier who arrested them? Some today want to portray Christianity as a religion of blessings and happiness: pray, open your Bible, and you’ll reap the harvest of good fortune and contentment. What if it isn't?

Conviction is convincing.

Jim Elliot said it well: “He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain that which he cannot lose.”

The author of Hebrews said it even better:

Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider him who endured such opposition from sinful men, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.

Heb 12:2-3

Convictions

Many women at 21 are thinking about careers, boyfriends, clothing styles, and music. Sophie Scholl was thinking about opposing madness.

If you haven’t seen the movie Sophie Scholl, it’s worth a thoughtful look. Don’t be looking for a lot of action, although the final scene is very gripping and dramatic. Based on a true story, it takes place in 1942 during the second World War.

The self-righteous totalitarianism of Nazi Germany is seen in raw contrast to Sophie’s commitment to freedom, truth, and compassion. The terse anger of Sophie’s prosecutor stands as a harsh backdrop to Sophie’s calm faithfulness.

Throughout the movie, Sophie is drawn to light. When she can throw back the shutter in her jail cell, she soaks in the sunlight. Her walk across a gray courtyard to her trial gives her opportunity to see the beauty of the sky with white clouds dancing. The sun illuminates her prayer time.

Sophie dissects the maneuvering of the Nazis. How could they bring freedom when they stifle dissension? How could they bring fulfillment when they destroyed “sub-humans” (anyone not meeting their arbitrary standards)? How could they deliver perfection through barbarism? She stands simply and fully on her convictions, impervious to their insults and their rantings.

Although the movie is a tribute to a modern-day hero, it also triggers discomfort for followers of Jesus. Where is our strength in opposition? Would we stand for truth and freedom if it meant such stark hostility? Could we raise our faces to the sun when evil was sucking the color out of our world? When evil bowed our backs, could we trust God’s beauty and grace?

My prayer is not that you take them out of the world but that you protect them from the evil one.

John 17:15

Explosions

Grant to your servants to speak your word with all boldness (Acts 4:29)

Lately I haven’t been zooming past words like these quite so fast. They reach out and snag my toe, dropping me to the floor in a thud of surprise.

This startling prayer in Acts is coming from a group of believers who started praying after Peter and James got themselves arrested and threatened. Who’d figure they’d be detained for healing a lame man?

Actually, Peter and James got themselves in trouble for boldly speaking to the crowd that understandably gathered to look at this formerly-lame man who was now jumping and leaping on legs of steel. Peter grabbed an opportunity and began to tell the people about Jesus' power to heal our bodies - and our souls.

Before long, in rushed the religious leaders and tossed the pair in prison. However, because of the impromptu speech, the number of believers in Jerusalem swelled to 5,000.

A night in prison didn’t dampen Peter and James’ speech. They went even further in their boldness, telling the religious folks: there is salvation in no one else but Jesus. And what were the religious leaders going to do? There stood the handicapped man who was now walking and announcing his healing loudly. So they threatened Peter and James, and sent them home.

The believers gathered in prayer. What would we have prayed for? Probably protection from the religious leaders. Maybe we’d ask that they have a change of heart. Maybe we’d ask for more miracles so they’d be convinced. We might ask for mercy if we got arrested.

But what do these believers pray for? More boldness. They wanted in on the action, too.

What these believers were doing shook the religious foundation of the day. They were radicals and revolutionaries. Sadly at this point in history, they were not fighting the government or the pagans, but the religious folks who could ignore healings to maintain the traditions they had developed.

Traditions. Boldness. Choices.

The believers asked for boldness and guess what they got? They were shaken and filled and spoke the word of God with boldness. God responded with an explosion of permission and power. Ask and you will receive.

When they had prayed, the place in which they were gathered together was shaken; and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke the word of God with boldness. (Acts 4:31)