Pray the word with David Platt is a resource from radical.net.

In Acts chapter 23, Paul is being put on trial, basically, and he's testifying at the gospel and as he does the dissension around

and becomes so violent that the Tribune is afraid that Paul is about to be torn

to pieces by the crowd so this

Tribune commands the soldiers to go down take Paul away from among them bring him

into the barracks and then verse 11 says the following night the Lord stood by

Paul and said take courage for as you have testified at the facts about me in

Jerusalem so you must testify also in Rome.

Oh, I love this picture. Paul, I mean he's got dissension all around him to the point where he's about to be torn to pieces.

He's wondering if he's even going to live through this and Jesus comes to him.

And the Bible says, the Lord stood by him. What a great phrase. He was

not alone and this is exactly what Jesus had promised when he told his

disciples in the Gospels that they would face persecution, he said they would not be alone,

that he would be with them. So the Lord stands by him and says,

take courage. The presence of Christ brings courage in the middle of trials and threats.

In the middle of unknowns we have courage because Christ is with us.

That's the clear takeaway from acts chapter 23 verse 11.

So I think about our brothers and sisters in the world right now who are persecuted who are facing trials

much like Paul was who are being threatened to be torn apart by pieces in some senses and I think this text just leads us to pray for them to that the Lord would stand by them and give them courage.

And at the same time this text beckons us to pray that when we face trials even threats against us that we would have

courage in Christ so we would remember that we are never alone so God we, we do, we pray these things.

God, we pray for our brothers and sisters right now

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