Acts is an awesome book of the Bible!
I have recently been reading through Acts in quiet times, and I have been continuously amazed by the courage and commitment of Paul and the people that preached the gospel with him!
In Acts 14, Paul gets rocks thrown at him until he is thought to be dead, and then he goes back into the city.
He then leaves the next day with his mate Barnabas.
This is amazing courage! Paul gets negative reactions all throughout the time that he is preaching the gospel, but surely this is one of the worst! He was nearly killed!
Thinking through my own life, how often do I have courage to preach the gospel? Surely if Paul got stoned for the gospel, I can risk friendships to preach the gospel.
I’m sure that if I were to preach the gospel, I would not have stones thrown at me, maybe a few harsh words, but that would be the worst.
Paul says later in Acts 14
“We must go through many hardships to enter the kingdom of God”
As Christians, we need to understand that we will face hardships in preaching the gospel, but chances are that here in Australia we will never face the hardships that some other Christians are facing (See Voice of the Martyrs for people who are suffering to preach the gospel).
So let’s be bold in preaching the gospel!
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It’s an encouragement also that Paul always acknowledges that his courage and perseverance comes only from God. In 2 Corinthians he says this:
‘[We} don’t want you to be unaware, brothers, of our affliction that took place in the province of Asia: we were completely overwhelmed—beyond our strength—so that we even despaired of life. However, we personally had a death sentence within ourselves so that we would not trust in ourselves, but in God who raises the dead. He has delivered us from such a terrible death, and He will deliver us; we have placed our hope in Him that He will deliver us again’ (2 Cor. 1:8-10).
So let’s do a Paul & pray that God will give us courage to boldly proclaim Jesus Christ as Lord, ’cause we won’t do it on our own!
Thanks for the post mate
Amen to that, it would be ridiculous to think that we can be courageous without God.
Thanks for the very helpful addition!