It wouldn’t surprise most of you, if when I say this is a great prayer, it’s found in the Bible. In Acts 4:24-30, the church gets together to pray. Peter and John have just been beaten up for making a lame man walk and attributing the signs and their general lifestyle to Jesus the Christ, who is risen and doing all sorts of things to confirm their testimony. When the apostles were finally released they told their friends. A fairly normal thing to do in my opinion. Though what is a little interesting is the fact that they are documented to all pray it together. The complexity of the prayer leads me to believe it is more likely one person prayed and everyone said amen. Here it is:
24 And when they heard it, they lifted their voices together to God and said, “Sovereign Lord, who made the heaven and the earth and the sea and everything in them,
25 who through the mouth of our father David, your servant, said by the Holy Spirit, “‘Why did the Gentiles rage, and the peoples plot in vain?
26 The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers were gathered together, against the Lord and against his Anointed’-
27 for truly in this city there were gathered together against your holy servant Jesus, whom you anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, along with the Gentiles and the peoples of Israel,
28 to do whatever your hand and your plan had predestined to take place.
29 And now, Lord, look upon their threats and grant to your servants to continue to speak your word with all boldness,
30 while you stretch out your hand to heal, and signs and wonders are performed through the name of your holy servant Jesus.”
Amen! It stirs me each time I read it of the fervent call for Jesus to stretch out His hand into Islington and change the town and the city it’s a part of.
Amen!
Toby
