August 7

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Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and perceived that they were uneducated and untrained men, they marveled. And they realized that they had been with Jesus. Acts 4:13

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🔊 Peter and John were amateurs in the eyes of the Sanhedrin. They were unqualified to speak with authority on matters such as the nature of God, prayer, the law and the resurrection from the dead. It is so easy for us to feel unqualified, and very common for us to feel that our contribution is insignificant alongside the great achievements of the apostles and other great servants of God. The truth is that, in the realm of the Spirit, all of God’s children are amateurs. But then, so are all children. No child goes to school to learn to be a child! We must feel our way forward, overcoming all sense of disqualification, and steadily come to realise that we are as effective and significant as every other believer. There will never come a point when God will give us a badge or a certificate to show that we have qualified! We must simply go to God with all our frailty and sense of inadequacy, and realise that that is how it is. Expertise in the Kingdom of God is a contradiction. Who can ever feel equal with Jesus? Such a feeling would be a blind deception in itself. When the weakest believer talks to God, the scene is set for them to make spiritual progress. When the weakest believer quietens his or her heart to approach God, all heaven holds its breath. For God has chosen this setting as the means by which He will channel His power and kingdom into the world. If we are with Jesus, we are in the most qualified place of all.