DAY 16 - OPEN YOUR MOUTH

THE WORD

"And now, Lord, take note of their threats, and grant that Your bond-servants may speak Your word with all confidence."—Acts 4:29

THE BURDEN

The early church had just been threatened. The religious leaders told them in no uncertain terms to stop speaking in the name of Jesus. When they gathered to pray, their request was not for protection, comfort, or relief from the pressure.

They asked for boldness to keep speaking.

That is a different kind of prayer than most of us pray when life gets hard. Our instinct is to ask God to remove the resistance. Their instinct was to ask God for the courage to push through it. And when they finished praying, the place was shaken and they were filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke the word of God with boldness.

Here is the honest truth—most of us are not silent about the Gospel because we don't know it. We are silent because we are afraid. Afraid of rejection. Afraid of awkwardness. Afraid of damaging a relationship. So we keep the most important news in human history to ourselves while the people we love remain lost.

The same Spirit that shook that room lives in you. Ask Him today not to remove your fear but to make your boldness bigger than your fear. Open your mouth. Say the name of Jesus. You don't have to have all the answers—you just have to be willing to speak.

THE PRAYER

Lord, grant me boldness today. I confess that fear has kept my mouth closed too many times. Fill me with Your Spirit and give me the courage to speak Your word with confidence to the person I am praying for. Shake something in me today the way You shook that room. In Jesus' name, Amen.

The name I am praying for:

FOR YOUR PRAYER PARTNER

Be honest with each other—what specific fear keeps you from speaking the Gospel to the person you are praying for? Name it out loud and pray together that God would make your boldness greater than your fear.