“Now, Lord, consider their threats and enable your servants to speak your word with great boldness.” (Acts 4:29, NIV)
Though Jack Nicklaus won more championships, Arnold Palmer will always be The King. If it were not for Arnold Palmer, many believe that golf may have never reached the popularity and acceptance that it enjoys today. He endeared himself to golf fans as well as his playing competitors for many reasons, but I think one of the greatest reasons he was so loved was for the boldness with which he played the game.
While everyone loves to cheer on the risk-taker, players like that really are the minority on the PGA Tour. Many people argue that Palmer would have won more majors had he known when to make more cautious decisions, but then we would have missed out on much of what made his legacy so great. I, for one, will forever admire his approach to the game and wish we had more people with his boldness—especially in our Christian faith.
It’s almost not fair to compare our golf superstars to the heroes of the first century church, but please make that stretch with me for a moment. If it were not for the boldness of the disciples and the early followers of “The Way,” it is hard to imagine how the Good News of Christ’s sacrificial death, resurrection, and appearance to over 500 of his followers would have been preserved and shared for the last 2,000 years. Without this boldness, we would not know or be able to receive the message of salvation today.
Of course we all know the details of Jesus’ brutal death, but many do not realize that nearly all of the disciples, authors of the New Testament, and early church leaders were persecuted and brutally killed for what they knew to be the truth. What I find so awe-inspiring about the history of the early church leaders (as recorded by Luke in the Acts of the Apostles) is not just how they responded to the threat of persecution, but the way they prayed.
The apostles asked the Lord for the boldness to do it, not the protection so they could do it safely.
Many of us would have to be threatened, thrown in prison, or flogged just once to be silenced. But if we could muster the courage to continue, we would at least pray that we never to have to endure that again!
Interestingly, these men prayed differently than I am accustomed to hearing. And I sure don’t pray this way myself. Early in the days after Jesus ascended to heaven, Peter and John were imprisoned, severely beaten, and then commanded upon their release to stop preaching this new gospel. Despite what they were instructed, they returned to their fellowship with other believers and prayed, “Now, Lord, consider their threats and enable your servants to speak your word with great boldness. Stretch out your hand to heal and perform signs and wonders through the name of your holy servant Jesus.” Then we are told that after they prayed, the place where they were meeting was shaken, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke the word of God boldly.
It is interesting to me that instead of praying for safety, they prayed for boldness. They knew that there was a price for following Jesus and obeying his commandment to go out and share what they had witnessed, yet they were willing to do it regardless of the price they would pay. They just asked the Lord for the boldness to do it, not the protection so they could do it safely.
Though we may never be able to pull off some of the miraculous shots that Arnold Palmer did on the golf course, being part of God’s miraculous signs and wonders may only be as far away as our willingness to pray for boldness and desire to act upon it.
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Josh Nelson
February 14, 2011
Copyright 2011 Links Players International
The Links Daily Devotional appears Monday-Friday at www.linksplayers.com.