Give us courage

Press the play button to watch the video above or press 'more' to read the transcript of the daily devotion below. Please read  Acts 12:1-11 (use your own Bible or use the link above to access the in-App Bible).

Leaving is hard to do, even when we want to. Many of my family have died in the same hospital in Manchester, and even though I have never lived anywhere near it since my birth, I go back when I have to. A few years ago, sitting in a park nearby taking a break from the bedside vigil, a man came along to me and chatted, asking what I was doing and said ‘I could tell you’re not from round here’ and I said ‘I am from almost exactly here, just I have not lived here for a long time’ and we both realised that it is a big world, which draws us back to where we began whether we want it to or not.

We are drawn back by family, love, faith (hopefully all three are comfortable with each other in our hearts) and sometimes by what may be the pattern of our lives. Herod Agrippa I, who begins today’s passage in a murderous way, is part of a line of murderers. His Grandfather, Herod the Great, commanded the slaughter of the innocents in a wish to kill Jesus. His Father, Herod Antipus, had John the Baptist beheaded and his son, Herod Agrippa II, went on to try St Paul. A legacy of hatred and blood, so opposed to the love and the blood of the Cross of Christ. Our own families of blood and of faith can also leave legacies which are life changing – for better or for worse.

This passage reminds me that God has a sovereign will, and that no matter how we may struggle, or be wrongly imprisoned, or indeed killed for our faith, He is in control of all things, and through our work and the work of the Angels, His will is done, on earth as it is in Heaven. We have an echo of Mary here, with Gabriel asking her to be the Mother of the word first spoken, before the Angel left her, as the Angel also leaves Peter. We will be guided and left from time to time, and brought back in strange ways, but the Word made flesh, the word first spoken is Love. And love never fails us.

Let us pray: Give us Lord the courage now, in the middle of Lent, not to leave you. Amen.