6 April, Saturday — Speak Up

Easter Saturday

Acts 4:13-21
Mk 16:9-15

“You must judge whether in God’s eyes it is right to listen to you and not to God. We cannot promise to stop proclaiming what we have seen and heard.”

Today, we have so much freedom of speech which on the one hand, is a good thing in advocating issues that are right and just. We now have a voice, an opportunity to speak what we stand for and what we believe, to call out injustices in the world and fight against it. But with so much freedom, there is also the flip side. Alongside freedom of speech and expression, we also have ‘cancel culture’. Certain things that we say, or opinions that we hold, may invite challenges and rebuke from other people. Sometimes, out of fear, we are silenced — ‘cancelled’. Yet, it is also fear that causes others to silence us. Perhaps they fear the truth. They are uncomfortable with the truth. But silencing one person does not extinguish the truth, it does not hide the facts, for the truth is still out there.

The rulers and elders tried to silence Peter and John, but Peter and John defiantly said that they would declare all that they had witnessed and teach all that they had learnt from Jesus. They were defiant in the face of truth; they chose to stand on the side of truth, knowing that they could risk their own safety doing so. They were confident in doing so because they saw God as the Judge of all, the only Judge that mattered. They also recognised that Jesus was the Way, the Truth, and the Life, and if what they were declaring was the truth in God’s eyes, then there was no other truth to stand for. There was no price for their faith except for what Jesus paid by his own blood. And they recognised that.

It is not always easy to speak up for the truth. The voices of dissent may be louder than us. We may succeed at times; other times we may be outnumbered. Sometimes, fear will force us into inaction. But if we know that what we stand for is right in the sight of God, we will realise that the fear is man-made, self-made. With God’s grace, we will rise above that fear and speak up, and with God’s help, our critics will be silenced.  

(Today’s OXYGEN by Annette Soo)

Prayer: Lord, we pray for the courage to stand for the truth. To stand for the truth requires conviction in our faith, and in you, oh Lord. Just as the Holy Spirit inspired Peter to be defiant in the face of his critics, we too pray for the Holy Spirit to fill us and help us stand firm in Your truth.

Thanksgiving: Lord, we thank you for sending the Holy Spirit to be our help and our guide, to speak for us when our own human courage fails us, to enable us when we feel limited by our own weaknesses. Thank you, Lord, for standing with us.