Saturday, January 3, 2026
Scripture Readings
- Primary Reading: Acts 4-5
- Secondary Reading: Psalms 2
Key Verse
Acts 5:3 — “But Peter said, Ananias, why hath Satan filled thine heart to lie to the Holy Ghost, and to keep back part of the price of the land?”
Devotional Thought
What would you do if you were forbidden to speak the name of Jesus? That is the question Acts 4-5 presses upon us on this early January morning, when the resolutions of the new year are still fresh and the routines of ordinary life are resuming. Peter and John had healed a man lame from birth—a man above forty years old, who stood before the council whole. The rulers could not deny the miracle; they could only command silence. The apostles’ answer rings across the centuries: “Whether it be right in the sight of God to hearken unto you more than unto God, judge ye. For we cannot but speak the things which we have seen and heard.”
Notice what happens when they return to their own company. They do not strategize or complain; they pray. They lift their voice with one accord, quoting David from Psalm 2—the very psalm appointed for today—recognizing that the raging of kings against the Lord’s Anointed is no new thing. Herod, Pilate, Gentiles, and Israel had gathered against Jesus, yet only accomplished what God’s hand and counsel had determined before to be done. So they ask not for safety but for boldness. And God answers: the place is shaken, they are filled with the Holy Ghost, and they speak the word with boldness.
The contrast that follows is sobering. Barnabas sells his land and lays the money at the apostles’ feet—a picture of “one heart and one soul.” Then Ananias and Sapphira sell a possession and keep back part of the price, pretending to give all. Their sin is not withholding money—Peter says the land was theirs to do with as they pleased. Their sin is lying to the Holy Ghost, performing devotion they did not possess. Judgment falls, and great fear comes upon the church.
This is where the new year meets us. We may not face a council threatening imprisonment, but we face subtler pressures to keep our faith quiet, private, inoffensive. And we face the temptation of Ananias—to appear more devoted than we are, to keep back part while presenting the whole. Acts 5 reminds us that God sees the hidden corner of the field. Yet Acts 4 reminds us that He also shakes rooms with prayer and fills ordinary, unlearned people with His Spirit. The same risen Christ who empowered Peter still empowers His people. May this year find us honest before God and bold before men, trusting Him who sits in the heavens, whose Son is King upon Zion.
Reflection
- Where in your life are you tempted to keep back part—presenting a devotion to God that is not quite the whole truth of your heart?
- If obedience to God and the expectations of those around you came into direct conflict this week, which would you actually choose?
Prayer
Lord, Thou art God, which hast made heaven and earth, and all that in them is. We confess that we have sometimes feared the faces of men more than we have trusted Thy hand, and have kept back part while pretending to give all. Forgive us. Fill us with the Holy Ghost as Thou didst fill Peter and John, and grant unto Thy servants that with all boldness we may speak Thy word. Shake the places where we gather; make us of one heart and one soul with Thy people. Let us not cease to teach and preach Jesus Christ, in whom alone is salvation, and in whose name we pray. Amen.
Psalm Verse
Psalms 2:1 — “Why do the heathen rage, and the people imagine a vain thing?”