Wednesday, January 7, 2026
Scripture Readings
- Primary Reading: Acts 11-12
Key Verse
Acts 11:28 — “And there stood up one of them named Agabus, and signified by the Spirit that there should be great dearth throughout all the world: which came to pass in the days of Claudius Caesar.”
Devotional Thought
What does it take to change a mind that has been settled for a lifetime? In Acts 11, Peter stands before the Jerusalem believers and recounts a vision that overturned his deepest assumptions. A sheet let down from heaven, filled with unclean creatures, and a voice commanding him to eat. Peter’s protest—”Not so, Lord”—was not stubbornness but the reflex of a lifetime of careful obedience to the Law. Yet God said, “What God hath cleansed, that call not thou common.” And when the Spirit fell on Cornelius’s household just as it had on the apostles at Pentecost, Peter could only conclude, “What was I, that I could withstand God?”
The early church had to learn something we still find hard: that grace is not our possession to ration. The Jerusalem believers, hearing Peter’s account, “held their peace, and glorified God.” That moment of yielding opened the door for the gospel to travel from Antioch to the ends of the earth. In these opening days of January, when we often resolve to change habits and sharpen disciplines, perhaps the deeper question is whether we will let God change our minds about whom He welcomes. The old year’s assumptions can calcify into the new year’s prejudices if we never sit still long enough to be surprised by grace.
Acts 12 shows what happens when the church prays and Herod rages. James, the brother of John, is killed with the sword—a sorrow the text does not soften. Peter is imprisoned, chained between two soldiers, awaiting the same fate. But the church “made prayer without ceasing unto God for him,” and an angel struck Peter’s side, the chains fell away, and the iron gate opened of its own accord. Meanwhile, in the house of Mary, the praying believers could not believe Rhoda’s report. They told her she was mad. That detail is both comic and deeply human: we pray fervently and then are astonished when God answers.
And Herod, arrayed in royal apparel, accepting the shout “It is the voice of a god,” was struck down and “eaten of worms.” The contrast is stark and intentional. The king who grasped at divine honor was devoured; the word of God “grew and multiplied.” In a season of new beginnings, this passage asks us to examine where we still resist God’s cleansing work, where we pray without expecting, and where we seek our own glory. Then it invites us to trust that the same God who freed Peter and humbled Herod is still at work, still growing His word, still answering prayer—even when we are startled by the answer.
Reflection
- Where in your life might you be saying “Not so, Lord”—resisting a work of God that feels unfamiliar or uncomfortable?
- The Jerusalem church prayed earnestly for Peter yet disbelieved when he appeared. What answers to prayer might you be missing because you have already decided what God can do?
Prayer
Lord, You are the God who cleanses what we call common and opens gates we thought were barred. Forgive us for the small boundaries we build around Your grace and for the prayers we pray without expectation. This January, give us hearts like Peter’s, willing to be surprised and corrected by Your Spirit. Teach us to pray with ceasing and to watch with open eyes for Your answers. Let Your word grow and multiply in our homes, our churches, and our communities. We ask this in the name of Jesus, who is the same yesterday, today, and forever. Amen.