Keep on keeping on

Press the play button to watch the video above or press 'more' to read the transcript of the daily devotion below. Please read Acts 14:8-20 (use your own Bible or use the link above to access the in-App Bible).

Can you imagine Paul’s shock. What started out as an innocent response driven by compassion for a man’s suffering suddenly saw Paul and Barnabas being hailed as gods! Rather than seeing the power of Jesus working through them, the onlookers wrongly assumed that the Greek gods had performed the miracle.

The two apostles must have wondered where they’d gone wrong. But what we see in this encounter are the foibles of humanness and that the unexpected can happen even when we’re doing our best to serve the Lord.

The fear of the unexpected shouldn’t keep us from trying to preach the gospel. This account reminds us that the fruit of our efforts should always be credited to God and that often He turns up often in the most surprising ways, our job is to simply keep on keeping on.

Trial and error have a place in following Jesus, so let’s not be afraid to take risks for the Lord, trusting that He can work through our weakness and that he will never condemn us for trying. Jesus simply asks that we remain teachable and above all that we begin with where people are at and end with pointing them to him.

I want to give the last word to John Stott who said this in his BST commentary on the book of Acts ‘We need to learn from Paul’s flexibility. We have no liberty to edit the heart of the good news of Jesus Christ. Nor is there any need to do so. But we have to begin where people are, to find a point of contact with them … Wherever we begin, however, we shall end with Jesus Christ, who is himself the good news, and who alone can fulfil all human aspirations.’

Let us pray: Lord, we know that sometimes things don’t turn out quite the way we expect or hope for. Let us approach such situations with open hearts, always speaking of you, knowing that in doing so we can bring glory to your world. Amen.