For reading and meditation: Acts 4:23-31

 

We now look at another distinctive of the Early Church: the practice of persevering, believing prayer. The book of Acts contains many accounts of how believers turned to prayer when they found themselves in difficulty. But their use of prayer was not limited to times of emergency only; often they prayed for a long while just for the joy of developing their relationship with their loving Father.

 

This latter aspect of prayer - praying for the sheer joy of communicating with heaven -is, I believe what is being conveyed in Acts 2:42: "They devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer." We should never forget that the Church was born in a prayer meeting, and I am convinced that to those early believers it was unthinkable that they could ever grow spiritually without recourse to prayer.

 

Look again at today's reading. Peter and John had been before the Sanhedrin and commanded not to speak any more in the name of Jesus (V.18). So when they are released what do they do? They go back to their fellow Christians, report the facts - and pray.