“The Power of God’s Will”

I used to enjoy the stories of the old west. You had to be tough to survive in the old west. There often was no law ….you had to defend yourself. You had to be a tough cookie to survive in the Old West.

Well if you read between the lines of the New Testament, you realize  that their time was also pretty rough. Everyone needed to watch their backs. 

• “the captain and the court officers went to bring the apostles in for questioning, but they did it without force for fear of being stoned by the people.” (Acts 5:17-26) Woe, these were the guys with the swords and they had to be careful of being stoned.
• Beginning with Herod immediately after he was born and continuing thru his entire life they were frequently trying to kill Jesus …. even his “friends” from Nazareth tried to throw him off a cliff. (Luke 4:28-30)
• If you associated with Jesus, you could end up on the list….think about Lazarus after Jesus brought him back from the dead…. they were trying to kill him.(John 12:10)
• After Jesus  was killed, the apostles were hiding beyond locked doors for fear of being apprehended and imprisoned or worse. (John 20:19) This was not some made up fear…. they were legitimately in danger. 
• There was great anger and rage against the followers of Christ. When Peter and the apostles were brought before the Sanhedrin, it says they became “infuriated and wanted to put them to death.”(Acts. 5:27-33)
• Of course we know of the subsequent Roman  persecution of Christians that followed.

Within this environment, we hear Peter pronounce, “ we must obey God rather than men” (Acts. 5:29). It took a lot of courage to stand up to the authorities who could take your life. How did the followers of Jesus develop such courage? What enabled them to actually put their life at stake in order to follow the Lord? How were they able to put everything at risk in order to obey God’s will? 

In our world sometimes we are so timid that even the aspect of being put down or yelled at will cause us to circumvent doing God’s will…we don’t want to get into a disagreement or confront the lies that scream at us. Our society is often afraid to confront the obvious lies that oppose God’s eternal truth. Clearly there is a spiritual intimidation that accompanies these lies….. but we also have the power of God that carries his truth. The Holy Spirit brings power to the argument for truth .… the eternal power of truth that ultimately prevails. 

What am I ready to sacrifice in order to obey God’s will? Let’s be honest with ourselves. I need to have a “heart to heart” with the Lord on this matter. This is not some debate on the internet. This is about eternity. If I find myself being timid in my defense of God’s will, I need to have a “heart to heart” talk with the Lord. Lord change my heart? Lord, help me to put all my life in your hands. Lord, may your will carry the day for me. Holy Spirit strengthen me so that I might stand with your truth. Help me Lord. Convince me of your love and truth so that I might stand with your holy will. 

We live in tough times. We need to be willing to put our life on the line for Christ. And we need the strength of God to enable us to do that. And the good news is that the Lord will help us. With God’s empowerment, we will stand for his will.