March 1
(Acts 4:31 NIV) “After they prayed, the place where they were meeting was shaken. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke the word of God boldly."
(Matthew 7:7-8 NIV) "Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. {8} For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened."
(1 John 5:14-15 NIV) "This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. {15} And if we know that he hears us--whatever we ask--we know that we have what we asked of him."
The prayers that shook the building where the disciples had gathered were prayers for courage and boldness to witness in the face of danger. That kind of prayer can still shake the church. When we begin to pray according to God’s will as the disciples did, asking the Lord to do great things through us for His glory, He will enable us to speak the word of God boldly, and the church will grow. We may suffer, but God’s Kingdom will expand. When we allow God’s Spirit to fill us, and when we live with the faith and joy of the early church, we will see awesome answers to prayer. And when God answers prayer, what He has done in our lives will not remain a secret. How the Lord blessed us and changed us will become a part of our normal, daily conversation. The church will grow when genuine faith brings genuine change, and when those genuinely changed share a genuine witness. Speak up! -- Friar Tuck’s Word of the Day
