Reading Plan:
Acts 4

Our Thoughts:
I enjoy rock climbing and caving. Over the years, I’ve had the opportunity to lead climbing and caving trips with different ministries and age groups. While heights and small, dark spaces aren’t necessarily fears of mine, I’ve learned that many people are afraid of those things. In fact, there has never been a time on a rock wall or in a cave when I haven’t had to calm someone who became afraid of heights or the cave. Often, in those times, their fear paralyzed them. Maybe you know the feeling.
When it comes to faith, fear often has the same effect on people - it paralyzes them. It is an often-used strategy of the enemy to keep us from the mission and vision we are called to live out as Christians. We fear we might not have all the answers or worse, that we might have the wrong ones. We fear rejection and ridicule.
In the book of Acts, we see seemingly fearless disciples, especially Peter and John. As you read their accounts this week, you might have thought, “I could never do that. I would never have the courage or knowledge to do something like that.” Essentially, we fear that we aren’t qualified, that we just don’t have the knowledge or the experience to engage in the mission God has given us.
These fears are strong enough to paralyze us and keep us from seizing an opportunity. Chapter 4 gives two steps to conquering our fears and stepping fully into the mission and vision God has for us with courage and confidence.
First, we need a little context. Let’s catch up on the storyline. Peter and John have been arrested for healing a man and then sharing their faith. The religious leaders are angry and make a crucial mistake. They ask Peter and John how they accomplished the miracle of healing the man. Recognizing yet another opportunity, Peter begins to share the Gospel with the religious leaders.
The response of the religious leaders is classic and provides the first key to help us conquer fear. Check out verse 13: “When they saw the courage of Peter and John and realized that they were unschooled, ordinary men, they were astonished, and they took note that these men had been with Jesus.”
The religious leaders realized that these were unschooled, ordinary men. Just a few years earlier, Peter and John were fishermen, and now God was using them to ignite the first Church - the Church that still exists today! (More on this tomorrow.)
But there was something else the religious leaders recognized, “...these men had been with Jesus.” This statement is also the first step to conquering the fear of sharing our faith.
Courage and confidence in our faith is built over time as we develop a relationship with Jesus. These guys listened to and watched Jesus for three years. The confidence they gained was not in themselves, but in Jesus and the mission he had called them to. The same is true for us. As we spend time with Jesus, our confidence in Him grows, our conviction for His calling on our life grows, and our courage to carry out that calling grows. As we grow, our fear shrinks, unable to paralyze us.
The second step is revealed a few verses later when yet again, the religious leaders feel powerless to stop Peter and John. They give them a firm warning, commanding them “...not to speak or teach at all in the name of Jesus.”
At this point in the narrative, it’s hard to believe they thought this would work. (Spoiler alert, it doesn’t.) Look how they responded, “Judge for yourselves whether it is right in God’s sight to obey you rather than God. For we cannot help speaking about what we have seen and heard.”
Did you catch that? Peter and John didn’t say, “we cannot help but to speak about what we’ve learned in the classroom or from a textbook.” Nope! They said we cannot help but to speak about “what we have seen and heard.” This entire time, all Peter and John did was share their experiences, what Jesus had done in their lives and in the lives of those around them. They were simply sharing their story.
You can argue theology all day, but when it comes to sharing your story, your personal experience with Jesus cannot be argued.
Let’s look through Peter and John’s two-step approach to overcoming fear and seizing God-sized opportunities again:
1. Spend time with Jesus so much that people notice the difference in the way you think about and live your life.
2. When people notice the difference (and they will), simply share your story. Share with them what Jesus has done in your life.

Questions:
Sharing your story can be simple and sometimes writing it down helps to eliminate some of the fear we have about sharing it. Take a moment and briefly write out your story, answering these three questions:
What was your life like before beginning a relationship with Jesus?
When did you trust Jesus as your Lord and Savior?
How has knowing, loving, and following Christ changed your life?

Prayer:
Father, thank you for saving my life. Thank you for my story. Put a desire in my heart to spend time with you every day and let those times with you change me. Give me the courage to share my faith with others in my life.

Author: Gray Strickland