Reading Plan: 

Acts 4

Delight in the Lord

Author: Mellanie Alexander 

One of my favorite verses is Psalms 37:4. It says, "Delight yourself in the Lord, and He will give you the desires of your heart." I think many times people take this out of context by thinking that it means God will give you a bigger house, a new car, a better job, or the best behaving children. The more I study God's Word this year, the more I see what this verse actually means. When my prayers, my heart, and my will aligns with what God's word says, He grants me my desires. In Acts 4, we see people delighting themselves in God and God in return answers their prayer.  

Peter and John have been arrested for preaching. The Sadducees were annoyed by them because they taught about Jesus. Peter, being filled with the Holy Spirit, preached to them with great boldness. The Sadducees were astonished because Peter and John were ordinary men. They couldn't punish them because they had just healed a man who had been lame since birth, so they issued a stern warning not to preach the name of Jesus anymore.  

Do you know what happened next? After they were released, they had a prayer meeting with their friends. Do you know what their friends prayed for? They prayed that the Sadducees would be smote from the Earth. Just kidding. They didn't pray for their obstacle to be removed. Instead, they prayed that Peter and John would continue to "...speak your word with all boldness..." (vs 29). They aligned their desires with the will of God. "And when they had prayed, the place in which they gathered together was shaken, and they were filled with the Holy Spirit and continued to speak the word of God with boldness." (vs. 31). 

Maybe our prayers aren't being answered because we are praying for the wrong thing. We pray for our obstacles to be removed instead of praying for strength and boldness to endure. Even Paul kept praying for a thorn to be removed from his side and finally God was like, "Hey Paul. I'm enough. Period. When you are weak, I'm strong."   

God wants us to delight in HIM. We find our joy in Him alone. When we start praying to follow the commands of God, when we start praying to see people through the lens of Jesus, when we start praying for boldness and strength, I think the Holy Spirit starts doing a mighty work in our lives. Maybe the ground doesn't shake but maybe you feel shook inside at how God starts to answer you. Delight yourself in Him, in His ways, and He will answer those prayers.  

Reflection: 

How can you change the way you pray?  

What commands can you start praying to align your heart to Jesus? 

Family Application: Sharing is caring! 

Author: Tina Bryant 

At the end of Acts 4 in verses 32-35, this really cool thing was happening! All the believers shared their belongings. No person claimed to be the only owner of all their belongings, instead, they shared them with everyone! They shared all that they had so that no one went without. Verse 34 tells us that there was not one needy person among them because all those who owned land and houses sold them and brought the money to the leaders, and they made sure that every person had exactly what they needed!

Have you ever needed something you didn't have? Maybe you forgot your lunch and someone shared theirs with you! Or maybe you didn’t have enough money to pay for your ice cream and someone bought it for you! That’s just what the Christians in the early church did. We can learn a lot from them. Sharing really is caring! And when we share what we have with others, everyone can have enough. What do you have a little extra of that you can share with others?   

Sharing when we have extra is another superpower! Jesus shared the Holy Spirit with us so that we can have great powers to share with others. 

Prayer: God, thank You for giving us extra so we can share with others. Help us to live by Your example and share with a happy heart so that others can have enough too. Amen!