Peter and the other apostles replied: "We must obey God rather than men!" Acts 5:29
We lack backbone. We bend, compromise, sell out, and look the other way. Society preaches a new morality and lives permissively. Abortion on demand, pornography, corruption, and ruthless business practices abound. We lack the courage to stand up and be counted. Spineless wonders!
In the first days after Pentecost the disciples of Jesus faced stiff opposition from the religious establishment. Peter and John were arrested and told to keep quiet about their faith in Jesus Christ. They could have played it safe and gone underground. But by God's grace these apostles displayed backbone. Arrested again for preaching Christ crucified, they replied, "We must obey God rather than men!" They continued boldly proclaiming the good news of Jesus. No spineless wonders, the apostles!
We confess our lack of backbone because of our weak, sinful flesh. God points us to His Son, who endured the cross, despising the shame. With backbone He drove the money-changers out of the temple and exposed the sham of the Pharisees. Risen, He offers us forgiveness and strength in the Gospel to stand up for Him and obey God rather than men. Reinforced by Word and sacraments, we step forward with backbone to proclaim Jesus as Savior and Lord in today's society. No longer spineless wonders!
PRAYER: Lord, give us backbone for Jesus' sake. Amen.
(Devotions from "The Abundant Life" copyright 1998, CPH. All Rights Reserved. No part of this publication may be printed, reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without prior written permission of Concordia Publishing House. Permission is granted for one-time e-mailing of this link to a friend. For information on other devotional material, please contact CPH at 800-325-3040 or visit CPH at www.cph.org.)
Today's Bible Readings: 2Kings 1-3 James 1
To Download Devotion MP3 to your computer, right click here and select "Save Link As" or "Save Target As" or "Download Linked File As"