Praying for Boldness
When you pray, what is it that you find yourself praying for most of the time?
As a pastor, I hear people pray quite often, and here is how I would categorize what a lot of us pray for.
We pray prayers for PROTECTION…
“God please protect me and my family from danger and accidents.” Protect us from sickness and injury. Protect us from bullies and from suffering.”
We pray prayers of BLESSING…
“God please bless me and my family. Bless us with good friends and good jobs. Bless us with a nice house and nice cars. Bless us with nice savings and retirement accounts. Bless my kids and my grandkids.”
We pray prayers for HELP…
“God help me do well in this sport. Help me do well on my test. Help me do well on this project at work. Help me get this promotion. Please Lord, just help me have better situations and circumstances in my life.”
We pray prayers of FIXING…
“God, would you fix my spouse? Please fix my kids. Lord, please fix my co-workers, my boss, my neighbors, and my enemies.”
We pray prayers for BIG DECISIONS…
“God, show me what decision to make about this person to marry, what job to take, which house to buy.”
We pray for OUR COUNTRY…
“God, we pray that all of our leaders will align politically with us and think like we do, and God if they don’t we pray that you’ll kick them out of office and out of this great country! Lord, we pray for our freedoms in this country, for our right to own guns, and our right to have religious freedoms. Father, we pray for the economy to do well and for capitalism to flourish.”
So, these are some of the prayers that I think we find ourselves praying from time to time. And if I’m being honest, and please understand that I am including myself in this, I think that most of the prayers we pray are geared at making our own lives easier. We are praying to make our own lives better and more comfortable and just easier.
I am certainly not saying that all our prayers are selfish or that we need to stop praying for some of the things I just mentioned, but I think if most of us are being honest, we’d see that our prayer lives are a lot about making our lives easier.
This is what we pray for, and maybe the disciples prayed for some of the same things on different occasions; but in Acts 4, the disciples prayed for boldness.
THE DISCIPLES’ PRAYER IN ACTS 4
However, to understand why they are praying what they pray, we must know the context.
In Acts 3, Peter heals a guy who had been lame since birth, and this guy starts walking, jumping, and praising God all throughout the temple. Well, that gets everyone’s attention, and Peter uses that moment to tell everyone about the good news of Jesus. As a result, a few thousand people put their faith in Him for the forgiveness of their sins!
But this scene also caught the attention of the Jewish leaders, and they did not like it. So, they arrested Peter and John and threatened them… “Don’t you dare go talking about this Jesus guy any longer…stop teaching people about Him OR ELSE!”
And remember, these guys had power. When they threatened them, they meant business and it was not to be taken lightly. They could make their lives miserable and inflict suffering upon them that no one would want to be a part of.
It had to be a scary moment.
Let’s see how they respond, beginning in Acts 4:23…
23 On their release, Peter and John went back to their own people and reported all that the chief priests and the elders had said to them. 24 When they heard this, they raised their voices together in prayer to God…
Notice that the disciple’s response to these threats against them was to pray! To fall on their knees and talk to God about these events and the circumstances they were in.
And this is a great reminder for us to do the same thing. When things go on in our lives, instead of first trying to just take matters into our own hands and address the problem ourselves, we pray and bring them before the Lord.
But check out how they prayed…TOGETHER. They didn’t just do it individually, they did it together.
Listen, there is something really powerful when we pray together. I mean it’s incredible to be able to go to God anytime on our own, and sometimes we need to do that, but the early church prayed together.
But there is also something else that I don’t want you to miss here in what Luke tells us in Acts 4:24 about them praying together. See, the Greek word translated together here means “with one accord.”
In other words, it means that they prayed in unity. Not only were they physically together, but they were praying in agreement with each other. You didn’t have one person praying for one thing and another person praying for another. They were on the same page. When your eyes are focused on Jesus, He will lead us to be of one accord and unite together as His Church.
But now let’s see what they prayed in Acts 4:24-28…
“Sovereign Lord,” they said, “you made the heavens and the earth and the sea, and everything in them. 25 You spoke by the Holy Spirit through the mouth of your servant, our father David: ‘Why do the nations rage and the peoples plot in vain? 26 The kings of the earth rise up and the rulers band together against the Lord and against his anointed one.’ 27 Indeed Herod and Pontius Pilate met together with the Gentiles and the people of Israel in this city to conspire against your holy servant Jesus, whom you anointed. 28 They did what your power and will had decided beforehand should happen.”
There are 4 ways that the disciples addressed God in this prayer: Sovereign Lord, the Lord of Creation, the Lord of Revelation, and the Lord of History.
SOVEREIGN LORD (v.24a)
The word they used is the word that we get our English word “despot” from. Now, that carries a negative connotation among us today, but it didn’t back then.
They were addressing God as One with absolute power. This word has the idea of authority or supremacy. They were referring to God as the ultimate authority over everything.
LORD OF CREATION (v.24b)
Why would the disciples address God as the Lord of Creation after being threatened by these Jewish leaders the way they had been?
Well, if you are the Creator of all things, then that shows you have ultimate authority. It shows that you have ultimate power.
They are acknowledging that even though these Jewish leaders (with all their power) threatened them, God has more power than them (as is evidenced in creating everything from nothing) and is even sovereign over them!
LORD OF REVELATION (v.25-27)
Verses 25-26 are a direct quote from Psalm 2, and what the disciples are saying in this prayer is that God was revealing through this Psalm what was going to be happening in the future, and what had actually happened to Jesus.
The Holy Spirit was prophesying through David that the nations, kings, rulers, and people of the earth would band together against Jesus. And they declared in their prayer in verse 27 that this did happen, showing once again His power and authority and that He is the Lord of Revelation.
LORD OF HISTORY (v.28)
Even though all these people were scheming, plotting, and trying to stop Jesus dead in His tracks, God was allowing all of it to happen as part of His plan to rescue the world from sin and bondage.
It was all in vain because God is sovereign and therefore, He is the God of history. It’s His story, and you can’t stop Him from accomplishing it.
So, this is all part of a prayer where the disciples are acknowledging God as the all-powerful, sovereign Lord and that is seen in the fact that He is the God of creation, the God of revelation, and the God of history.
And this is all building up to a request they are about to make. They are addressing Him as the all-powerful one who can do something for them because they have a request for him.
Now, keep in mind that they’ve just been threatened by powerful people but are now talking to One who is way more powerful than those who had just threatened them.
What is their request?
PRAYING FOR BOLDNESS
The prayer continues in Acts 4:29-30…
29 “Now, Lord, consider their threats and enable your servants to speak your word with great boldness. 30 Stretch out your hand to heal and perform signs and wonders through the name of your holy servant Jesus.”
Wow, they don’t pray for revenge. They don’t pray for better situations or circumstances. They don’t even pray for protection. They were praying for boldness!
They pray for Him to use His power to enable them to keep telling others about Jesus, regardless of what would happen to them if they did!
They wanted to make sure that no one missed the grace of God. That no one would miss out on His complete forgiveness, His agape love, and the eternal Life that He offers to all.
So they say, “You are the Sovereign Lord, the Lord of Creation, the Lord of Revelation, and the Lord of History; therefore, we know that those who threaten us can’t stop you. So, enable us, empower us, embolden us, and USE us in advancing your Kingdom!”
And He did! Look what happened after the disciples prayed this prayer in Acts 4:31…
31 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.
In the Old Testament, the shaking of a place was a sign of a theophany, which is a manifestation of God in visible form. In other words, this was God’s way of showing them that he was present and would answer their prayer.
And He did. Luke tells us that they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke the word of God boldly.
Now to be clear, they were already filled with the Holy Spirit. This happened in Acts 2, but this is a way of saying that they were enabled to do what they had asked for by the already and ever-present Spirit that was already in them.
HOW WERE THE DISCIPLES ABLE TO PRAY A PRAYER LIKE THIS?
This was a beautiful New Covenant prayer. The disciples had spent 3 years physically with Jesus, but now He lived in them. He had changed them. He had given them a new heart and a new power to live by.
In their new spiritual union with Jesus, they had everything they needed for life and godliness. They had an assurance of eternal salvation.
Therefore, because they had everything they needed in their union with Christ, they were simply free to make themselves available to be used by Jesus in His Kingdom work. It didn’t matter what happened to them as a result of how He worked through them, because they had abundant Life in Him and guaranteed eternal life even if they died.
PRAYING FOR BOLDNESS IN OUR OWN LIVES
If you and I have put our faith in Jesus for salvation, then the same thing that was true of the disciples is true of us.
We are united to Christ. We have everything we need in Him. We have guaranteed eternal life.
If we truly don’t need anything, then we are also free. Free to pray for Him to use us in His Kingdom work, no matter what will happen to us as a result.
So, keep your focus on Jesus and all that you have in Him. Keep your focus on those who don’t have what you have because they don’t know Jesus. And then pray for boldness. Pray for Him to use you to reach those with His grace and His love. And as He does, may you experience His life and power in you and through you as He draws them to Himself.
