Don’t be afraid. Continue speaking. Don’t be silent.
Persistence in prayer & action.
Luke 11:1-13 | Acts 18:9-17
Paul gets a word from the Lord to keep going in today’s passage from Acts. It’s psalm-like and promises both God’s presence with him and also that no harm will come to him. Sometimes such scripture can cause us to wrestle with the concept of harm. Does that mean we won’t get a scratch on our hand? …no ill will from others toward us? Paul comes into a lot of what we would call harm as he does God’s work - shipwrecked, beaten, etc.
Perhaps the harm God promises to keep us from is of the heart? …our spirit? This might seem like nothing more than playing with words, but it’s important to consider. When our expectations do not match reality, we can become disenfranchised with God, disappointed, and depressed.
It seems most true of God’s promise that he will be with us no matter what.
Even Jesus was harmed. And significantly so.
But it doesn’t seem in the end, that he let go of the faith that his father was with him.
Luke 11:1-13
Jesus was praying in a certain place. When he finished, one of his disciples said, “Lord, teach us to pray, just as John taught his disciples.”
Jesus told them, “When you pray, say:
‘Father, uphold the holiness of your name.
Bring in your kingdom.
Give us the bread we need for today.
Forgive us our sins,
for we also forgive everyone who has wronged us.
And don’t lead us into temptation.’”
He also said to them, “Imagine that one of you has a friend and you go to that friend in the middle of the night. Imagine saying, ‘Friend, loan me three loaves of bread because a friend of mine on a journey has arrived and I have nothing to set before him.’ Imagine further that he answers from within the house, ‘Don’t bother me. The door is already locked, and my children and I are in bed. I can’t get up to give you anything.’ I assure you, even if he wouldn’t get up and help because of his friendship, he will get up and give his friend whatever he needs because of his friend’s brashness. And I tell you: Ask and you will receive. Seek and you will find. Knock and the door will be opened to you. Everyone who asks, receives. Whoever seeks, finds. To everyone who knocks, the door is opened.
“Which father among you would give a snake to your child if the child asked for a fish? If a child asked for an egg, what father would give the child a scorpion? If you who are evil know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him?”
Acts 18:9-17
One night the Lord said to Paul in a vision, “Don’t be afraid. Continue speaking. Don’t be silent. I’m with you and no one who attacks you will harm you, for I have many people in this city.” So he stayed there for eighteen months, teaching God’s word among them.
Now when Gallio was the governor of the province of Achaia, the Jews united in their opposition against Paul and brought him before the court. “This man is persuading others to worship God unlawfully,” they declared.
Just as Paul was about to speak, Gallio said to the Jews, “If there had been some sort of injury or criminal behavior, I would have reason to accept your complaint. However, since these are squabbles about a message, names, and your own Law, deal with them yourselves. I have no desire to sit in judgment over such things.” He expelled them from the court, but everyone seized Sosthenes, the synagogue leader, and gave him a beating in the presence of the governor. None of this mattered to Gallio.
Prayer
Our Father in Heaven,
Your name is holy.
Reveal your Kingdom here on earth,
Make it as it is where you abide:
Your will and your way in us and through us.
Provide for us this day your food
For our spirits, minds, and bodies.
Make right in us those things that are wrong
Of both intention and mistake.
And help us as we endeavor for the same in our relationships with others.
Keep us from the things that would bring us down,
And give us victory over evil itself in our own lives and in the world.
We ask these things of you acknowledging that all that matters begins with you:
The Kingdom, the power, and the glory.
By your spirit & in Christ,
Amen.