by Christy Whitaker
Acts 28:30-31 (NIV)
30 For two whole years Paul stayed there in his own rented house and welcomed all who came to see him. 31 He proclaimed the kingdom of God and taught about the Lord Jesus Christ—with all boldness and without hindrance!
When I look at our “To be continued..” verse of this year and at the story of Paul, I am just so amazed at his boldness. I know that if I were in his spot, awaiting trail and chained to Roman guards, it would take everything in me not to shrink away and give up. Paul does the exact opposite. He continued to teach people about Jesus despite his poor circumstances. So how do we become bold in our teaching, like Paul? For one thing, we must value and understand the power of the Word of God.
We know that all scripture was inspired by God, or God-breathed (2 Timothy 3:16). But have you ever really thought about what happened when God actually spoke aloud? In Mark 4:39, Jesus tells a storm to be quiet, and it does. In Mark 5:8-14, Jesus saves a man who had been possessed by spirits. Jesus says ,”come out of this man,” and they do. Then in Mark 5:39, news is brought that the daughter of the synagogue leader has died and Jesus responds, “the child is not dead but asleep,” and suddenly what he says becomes true. Everything God says is truth. From the very beginning, God only had to say, “let there be light,” and there it was (Genesis 1:3).
I have definitely been guilty of minimizing the Word at different times in my life. I have let grief and heartache, or just selfishness and bad priorities keep me from scripture. Let me tell you that if any of you are in a spot like that where you don’t want to be in your Bible that the first step is to do it anyways. God’s Word has the power to work in whatever circumstances we are in, and the more we know it the bolder we will be.