Devotional of the Week November 16-22

Acts 4: 13-20

"Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and perceived that they were unlearned and ignorant men, they marvelled: and they took knowledge of them, that they had been with Jesus. And beholding the man which was healed standing with them, they could say nothing against it. But when they had commanded them to go aside out of the council, they conferred among themselves, saying, What shall we do to these men? for that indeed a notable miracle hath been done by them is manifest to all them that dwell in Jerusalem; and we cannot deny it. But that it spread no further among the people, let us straitly threaten them, that they speak hencerforth to no man in this name. And they called them, and commanded them not to speak at all nor teach in the name of Jesus. But Peter and John answered and said unto them, Whether it be right in the sight of God to hearken unto you more than unto God, judge ye. For we cannot but speak the things which we have seen and heard."

Whenever we are faced with life's challenges, we are sometimes tempted to give up or give in. The early disciples of Christ faced many challenges and opposition to the gospel, but they never even gave a second thought to giving up or giving in to the opposition. As children of God, we too should never give up or give in to opposition when we are doing God's work. People may oppose us, or try to malign us, but the work which we do speaks for itself. The good works that we do stand as living proof as to what we are all about. When we feel discouraged or disheartened, all we have to do is look at our work, and the fruit of that work, and take pleasure from knowing that we are making a positive difference in the world.