Devotional Verse: Acts 11:17 "If therefore God gave them the same gift as He gave us when we believed on the Lord Jesus Christ, who was I that I could withstand God?”

In this passage, Peter explains to his fellow Jewish converts how he could eat with and minister to Gentiles. But, unfortunately, they can’t seem to wrap their mind around the fact that God would want Peter to minister to the gentiles just like the Jews. This type of behavior may seem odd to us, but I believe we often act the same way.

How often do we look at someone or something different from us and think, “that can’t be God” or “I don’t see how God could use that/them.” We’re doing the same thing the Jewish believers did in Acts 11. We are determining whether or not God is working through someone or something. Now we must have discernment, of course, but we are operating in our natural thinking, not Godly discernment most of the time. I sometimes jokingly call it the gift of suspicion.

We must begin to trust God that He can work in ways that we don’t understand at the moment and may never understand. We all say we believe that God is all-knowing, but in instances like this, you must believe that. So ask yourself, is there something you have objected to that God is ordaining?

Ezra 10:4 "Arise for this matter is your responsibility, we also are with you. Therefore, be of good courage, and do it."

We often feel led by God to action, maybe not an audible voice, but it could be by reading scripture or seeing injustice. I would say that most believers have felt this at some point in their life if not many times. But how many of us feel this call to action, this responsibility, and never step up to the challenge? We can go years thinking about it, maybe even getting training and education on the matter, but still never actually do anything. I believe it's because we don't have support from the people around us, and we are full of fear. This lack of support and fear paralyzes us from taking care of our God-given responsibilities.

In this passage, we see that we have a responsibility; there is something or many things that God has entrusted to us. We need two things to move from thinking about it to doing it. First, we need people around us who will encourage us and support us in our responsibility. Second, we need courage. Not a fake it until you make it courage, but courage that if God has given us this responsibility, he will provide us with the tool and resources to accomplish it!