Staying Silent

Sometimes life just seems to throw everything and the kitchen sink at you and you just want to scream... You want to fight it with every bone in your body, you know you shouldn't you know you should just walk away and call it a day but it's like those kung-foo movies from the 80's where the acting is horrid and the fighting is worse but your eyes are glued to the screen...

This is so often my life it seems... 

I can't seem to ever get ahead, and I wonder is there every really a point where I can achieve victory? 

Now don't hear me and think oh he is depressed, he's throwing in the towel or something like that because you couldn't be further from the truth - there are just days that I feel so completely overwhelmed I don't know what direction is up... 

Earlier this week as I was reading preparing my thoughts for my day I read a passage that I wasn't as familiar with, I know I've read it before but it had been a while and as I read those words it was as if I light went on in my head (don't you love it when that happens?) I began in that moment to be reminded of things all be it in a small scope from God's perspective...

The passage I read was Acts chapter 4. In Acts 4 Peter and John had been been speaking in the temple and some 5000 men came to believe in the resurrected Christ. While they were there they were confronted by the temple police - the priests, and the Sadducee's, they seized them and took Peter and John into custody... The next day the rulers, elders, & scribes began to question Peter and John ultimately trying to bully them by forbidding them to preach or teach in the name of Jesus, now they thought they could get away with this because Peter and John were uneducated fishermen and they hoped that the men would be swayed and this budding movement would fade away but their response would be click bait in today's social media driven society... verse 19-20: 

19 But Peter and John answered them, “Whether it’s right in the sight of God for us to listen to you rather than to God, you decide; 20 for we are unable to stop speaking about what we have seen and heard.”

Peter and John knew that whatever came their way God could handle it, they knew that they must keep their eyes on Christ no matter the cost... Sounds a lot like three young men in the Old Testament Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego who got tossed in the furnace or another guy by the name of Daniel who was tossed in the lions den... They had done nothing wrong, they were being obedient to live out what they had seen and heard...

Our answer today should be the same... when the world attacks us, when our friends betray us, when the car dies, and nothings seems to go right rather than trying to defend ourselves, rather than trying to be the loudest voice in the room, rather than giving up or getting angry - stop and pray... Stop and pray because God is in control of that situation just as He is in control of every other situation that we find ourselves in each day... 

Peter and John had the right idea, they were going to do what they had to do - be obedient to God's call on their life - they knew that the elders and rulers of the day were going to do what they were going to do, and I am sure that it wasn't easy listening to their threats wondering if they were bluffing...

Peter and John held the course and preached what they had seen and heard - they preached the Gospel of Jesus to the people regardless of what might befall them now or at a later date... 

Can you say that? Are you willing to make yourself hated for the name of Jesus? Are you ready to endure the threats and personal attacks for your faith? I know I am!