Day 22 — Standing Alone

“But Peter and John replied, ‘Judge for yourselves whether it is right in God’s sight to listen to you rather than God. For we cannot stop speaking about what we have seen and heard.’”

— Acts 4:19–20 (BSB)

Peter and John had just been arrested. A man who had been unable to walk for over forty years was now on his feet, and the whole city was talking about it. The most powerful religious council in Jerusalem called them in and gave them a simple order: Stop talking about Jesus.

These were not trained speakers. The council noticed they were “unschooled, ordinary men” (Acts 4:13). They had no lawyers and no followers to protect them. A few weeks earlier, Peter had been so afraid that he swore he didn’t even know Jesus. Now he looks the council in the eye and says, in effect: You decide what’s right. We can’t stop.

What changed? The same verse tells us. The council “took note that these men had been with Jesus.” Courage didn’t come from their personalities. It came from Someone they had seen risen from the dead.

You probably won’t be dragged before a council. But you will face smaller versions of the same moment. A teacher mocks people who believe in God, and the class laughs. Your friends are planning something you know is wrong, and they’re waiting to see if you’re in. Someone posts a cruel video of a classmate and the whole group reacts with laughing faces, and yours is the only silence. It doesn’t feel like a big moment. It feels like being the only one.

Standing alone doesn’t mean being harsh or superior. Peter and John didn’t insult the council. They answered calmly and honestly. You can say no politely. You can say, “I’m not comfortable with that,” and leave it there. The point is not to win the argument. The point is to stay loyal to Jesus.

Christians have done this for two thousand years. Around the year 155, an old man named Polycarp was arrested for his faith in Smyrna, in what is now Turkey. The governor told him to curse Christ and go free. He replied, “Eighty and six years have I served him, and he never once wronged me; how then shall I blaspheme my King, Who hath saved me?” Christians in Africa, Asia, the Middle East and Latin America are still making that choice today, often at much greater cost than an awkward silence in a classroom.

Here’s the encouraging part. When you stand for Jesus, you are never actually alone. He promised, “surely I am with you always, even to the end of the age” (Matthew 28:20). And often, you’ll find that someone else in the room was hoping a person would go first.

Courage is not the absence of fear. It’s what you do with your fear when you’ve been with Jesus.

Think about it: Where in your life right now is it hardest to be openly Christian? What would loyalty to Jesus look like there, without being harsh?

Try this: Decide now, before the moment comes, one sentence you’ll say when you’re pressured to do something wrong. Write it down and practise it.

Go deeper: Fox’s Book of Martyrs by John Foxe — the stories of the first Christians who would not deny Christ under Rome, including old Polycarp and a fifteen-year-old named Ponticus who stood firm alongside Blandina at Lyons. Start with chapter 2, “The Ten Primitive Persecutions.”

Lord Jesus, I want to be someone who has been with You. When I’m the only one, give me courage that is calm and kind, not proud. Help me remember Peter and John, Polycarp, and the brothers and sisters standing firm today. Thank You that You never leave me on my own. In Jesus’ name, Amen.