Saturday 29 Mar 2014

Saturday Reading: Acts 18:9-11

Key Verse: Acts 18:9
Now the Lord spoke to Paul in the night by a vision, “Do not be afraid, but speak, and do not keep silent;

Devotion:
When we reach out to God in faith and with all our hope we will always find that He has been there all along, even when we have felt least loved! Paul probably went through very trying times as he came to terms with all he had done against Christ and how much Christ was now doing for him. Paul believed fully that this was God talking to him through a vision or a dream; don’t ever be put off by what God gives to you when you meditate on Him!

I had great difficulty in believing that God would ever choose to talk to me in any way because of the things I had done in my past. I could not see how He would ever want to come close to me, and yet I very quickly learned that when I put my faith and trust in Him, He was always there and always encouraging me in so many ways. I do love it when things all drop into place with the work that I do for Him, but I also see how the evil one tries so very hard to stop those good things from happening.

In this passage God reminded Paul that He was always with him and that Paul should be bold enough to talk about God openly because of that fact. If we hide God’s Words because we are afraid of what other people will say or do to us, then we are not putting our faith and trust in God. Yes there are times when it is wise to not say anything because your life is in danger and the people around do not want to hear the truth, but that should not stop us from saying that we should agree to disagree with them. Let people know you believe in Christ and that you are not afraid of that fact!

Christ came into the world to show the world His love, not to hide it under a bush or in a cupboard. Christ came and was very open about the fact that He is who He is. But there are a few times when He knew to keep quiet and other times when He knew to stand up and be counted. Allow God to guide you as to when you open your mouth and not when you want to open it… you may end up breaking trusts instead of building them. But when God asks you to step forward, don’t be a Jonah and think about it, just do it!

Points to Ponder:
Are you open about Christ in your life?

Do you listen to Christ?