A Devastating Martyr, a Miraculous Rescue, and a Just Punishment Part 3
a commentary on Acts 12 (Application)
Thank you, Lord, for this day. May it be used for your glory!
Good morning everyone and welcome back to Biblit!
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This week we’ve been reading Acts chapter 12 where we see a devastating martyr, a miraculous rescue, and a just punishment.
But how do these things fit into our lives? Let’s dive in!
The Power of Prayer
The first and foremost application we can take from this passage is a reliance on the power of prayer.
When Jesus conquered death, the veil was torn. We no longer need a priest and sacrifices to talk to God. And even back then, we wouldn’t be the ones talking, it was only the high priest once a year.
Now, we can talk to God in His full presence any time we want! And He desires us to too! To God, we aren’t kids hyped up on sugar jumping up and down yelling “Daddy daddy daddy!”
He desires a relationship with us. He is the Father that’s watched us our whole lives hoping one day we’d come home. And now that we are home, He wants us to get to know Him, talk to Him, and ask Him for help.
But how often do we jump into more “tangible” action points when a problem arises?
These early believers put their faith in God. Could they have tried to bribe their way to Peter’s freedom? Perhaps. But they chose to pray first.
Sometimes God’s answer to prayer might be an action we need to take in faith. It might use a resource that God has already gifted us with. After all, it all comes from God. It’s His to do with as He pleases.
The point is not that we should pray and never act.
The point is that we should always pray first and act later as the Spirit leads us.
When we do it the other way around we are living blindly and praying that God would clean up the mess we left behind.
God’s Sovereign Will
I recently read a book by AW Tozer and although I don’t have the direct quote, I think he did a cool job of summarizing the idea of all us believers having different gifts as a part of the body of Christ.
He said that certainly, some gifts will have a bigger impact on the Kingdom than others. It’s foolish to say that Billy Graham had an equal impact on the Kingdom as the church’s accountant.
But what Tozer says is that the level of impact for the Kingdom doesn’t matter; that’s all God anyway. Billy Graham didn’t convert a single soul; he was just the vessel God used to do His good works.
What matters is that whatever the gift God gave you, are you using it for His glory?
Because yes some might have bigger impacts than others, but they are all equally glorifying to God. Because they are all using their gifts for His glory.
Don’t look to other ministry leaders and assume you need to live up to what they are doing to fit into the Kingdom of Christ.
Look to God and ask Him what unique gifts He has given you, and then just use them for His glory.
Giving God Glory
This once again brings us to our final point: give God the glory.
Every gift you have comes from God. People tell me I’m disciplined because I can get up and train for marathons.
But that discipline isn’t something I just created or mustered up. It is a gift from God. To deny it out of forced humility would be to deny God’s gifts. But to take it like I did something to earn discipline is just like Herod basking in the glory.
God gave me the discipline necessary to run a marathon, and He deserves the glory for that. And so I choose to use that gift of discipline to run marathons with the hope that I can glorify God with that by sharing God with others. By connecting the joys of running to the joy of Salvation.
That’s just one example. But the point is, what gifts has God given you?
It doesn’t have to be prophecy or something ultra-spiritual-sounding. I believe God’s gifts are in our personalities, skills, and passions.
How can you use them for His glory?
Thanks for tuning in! I hope you all have a wonderful week and we’ll talk again when we dive into Acts 13.