(Read Acts 16 and 17:1-4)
This morning we continue our series “Grace that is Simply Amazing.” On Fridays I sometimes close out the week with more of a reflective message, than a message that deals with a particular passage.
This week we covered Paul and Silas’ experience in prison. First of all, all they did to land themselves in prison was to cast a demon out of a girl. They were doing the will of God and they wound up getting arrested, brutally beaten, and locked up in the innermost dungeon of the prison. This seems like an overreaction. Somehow the penalty does not seem to match the crime. But this is a reminder that there were spiritual forces at work against Paul and there will be spiritual forces at work against you when you are doing the will of God.
On Paul’s first missionary journey he had to run from mobs on more than one occasion. In one instance, the mob job ahold of him, beat him close to death, dragged him out of town, and left him for dead. By the Grace of God Paul got up, reunited with Barnabas, and kept on preaching! On this, his second missionary journey, Paul was arrested, beaten and imprisoned. But once again, he had the Grace to keep going, he prayed and sang praises in the midnight hour, and God turned his seemingly hopeless situation around.
So what does this mean to you today? A few things:
1. You are important to God. While God is God and He can do whatever He wants, He has chosen to operate in the earth through men. So while you obviously need God, God also needs you. He wants to impact people in the earth and He is looking to do it through humans who are submitted to His Kingdom plans and purposes for their lives. Will you be one? Will you allow God to use you to reach the people within the sphere of your influence? God is counting on you. Don’t let Him down.
2. When you operate in your Grace you are a threat to satan. Paul was just one man, but when you look at all the attacks he faced, it is obvious that satan was trying to stop Paul. Why? Because once Paul started doing the will of God, with the Grace of God on his life, he became a threat to the kingdom of darkness. Guess what? You can do the same thing. If you allow God to use you to further His Kingdom, then God’s Kingdom will advance through you and satan’s kingdom will fear the God in you.
3. As long as you keep looking to God, satan can’t stop you. Satan tried time and time again to stop Paul, and if Paul would have attempted to do what he was doing on his own strength and with his own power, he would have easily given up. However, Paul was relying on God’s strength, on His power, and His Grace. Since Paul was looking to God, then every time stan knocked him down, God picked up back up and He kept going by the Grace. God will do the same for you. Keep looking to Him as the source of your strength.
4. One person in the hands of God can make a difference. Paul was used of God to change the world. Yes, one man, in the hands of a Holy God, made an impact that is still being felt today (some 2,000 years later). Like Paul, you are one man (or woman), and you too can give yourself over to God to make a difference in the world that will be felt for generations to come. God does not want to use you because you are so good. God is not seeking to use you because you have earned it. God does not want to flow through you because you have been perfect. No! God wants to use you by Grace, because He is so good, and because He wants to change the world through you. Will you let Him?
Closing Confession: Father, I have read in the Bible how You can make a difference through one man. Through one man, Joseph, You prepared a way for his family and his nation to be shielded and protected from a famine. Through one man, Moses, You led an entire nation out of bondage and into a relationship with You. Through one man, Joshua, You led that same nation out of the wilderness and into the Promised Land. Through one man, David, You raised up a king who led his people back to You. Through a rag-tag group of men, the disciples, You initiated a change that spread through a region, and then throughout the world. Through one man, Paul, You wrote half of Your New Testament, and those words are still touching lives over 2,000 years later. Father, You can do whatever You want, but You have chosen to operate in the earth through men. I am a man, I am submitted to You, and by Your Grace I am ready to make the impact You desire for me to make. I give myself over to You, to be used of You, for Your glory. Speak through my vocal cords, think through my mind, and operate through my limbs, that the world may see Jesus in me. I may be one man, but I have an eternal God living on the inside of me and I am determined to allow my God to flow through me freely. I will leave a mark that can never be erased! I am an instrument of God and a threat to satan. Satan will try to stop me, but I will keep going, because I am not relying on my own strength. I call for and rely on the Grace of God. Father, Your Grace enables me to keep going, even when there is pressure on me to quit! I declare this by faith. In Jesus’ name. Amen.
This is Today’s Word! Apply it and Prosper.
