God does some pretty amazing stuff in this chapter. It's unfortunate that often when God works, others get the credit. In this chapter, it was the Greek Gods (through Paul and Barnabas). In our world, often it's scientific knowledge and chance. Whenever someone gets healed from a sickness, whenever something amazing happens, we have to find the scientific proof of why and how it happened. Often, the solution is a confluence of external factors and luck. It's so hard to admit that it really was God's hand. Paul and Barnabas are very impressive in this chapter. As soon as the people started to praise them, there was no hesitation in them. They instantly tore their clothes and gave the glory to God. This is something that I need to do more often in my life. A couple of years back, I was walking back from class with a few classmates. I don't remember what we were talking about but suddenly, one of them said, "You know Dennis, I don't know why but you're a very happy person all the time. Why is that?" I had an opportunity here to testify as a witness for God. Here was an opening for me to begin to sow the seeds of the gospel in my classmate's heart. But, I failed to rise to the opportunity. Instead, I mentioned something about me naturally having an optimistic personality (which is completely untrue) or some other untenable excuse. When I got back home, I thought about what had happened and repented. I swore to never let go of another opportunity to stand up for Christ. Paul and Barnabas were willing to stand up for Christ, even to the point of being stoned. But God protected them and continued to bless them throughout their journey. How great He is!
Stand up for Christ today!
i was listening to this audio book in the car with katie today and it said something about us plagiarizing God when we don't give Him the credit for something that He has done. Or when we try to carry out God's will with our own strength. I thought it was an interesting perspective. and it reminded me of this post. But yeah...we should be more willing to constantly give the glory to God, but also just be more aware of all the times He has answered prayer.
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