Acts 4:21-28
...Because all the people were praising God for what had happened... On their release, Peter and John went back to their own people and reported all that the chief priests and elders had said to them. When they heard this, they raised their voices together in prayer to God. "Sovereign Lord," they said, "you made the heaven and the earth and the sea, and everything in them. You spoke by the Holy Spirit through the mouth of your servant, our father David: "'Why do the nations rage and the peoples plot in vain? The kings of the earth take their stand and the rulers gather together against the Lord and against his Anointed One.'...
The early church was not only a church that testified courageously, but it was also a church of prayer. After Jesus ascended to heaven, the disciples gathered at one building and prayed together. In Acts chapter one, they selected another apostle to replace Judah through prayer. In chapter two, Peter preached for the first time and three thousand people accepted the Lord, and the first thing they did was to pray. Here in chapter four, all the saints prayed together to praise God, and in chapter six, when they were selecting deacons, they prayed and also said that the apostles should treat prayer and preaching as important matters; in chapter seven, when Steven was being stoned to death by the mob, he was still praying to God.
The early church was indeed a church of prayer, and their prayers were different from ordinary prayer. We often pray for ourselves, "my job, my family, my diseases, my weakness...", much like the parable of praying in the sanctuary by Jesus recorded in Luke. In the parable, the prayer of the Pharisee was filled with "me", and Jesus said it was not difference from murmuring. Aren't our prayers the same sometimes? The prayers of the early church were filled with praises to God, because they recognized that God is indeed the all mighty master of the universe. Praising God, according to the Bible, was never the result of God making everything smooth for people; in fact, most of the most marvelous praises were written when the circumstance was difficult.
When Paul and Silas preached the gospel at Philippi, they were thrown in to jail, beaten and locked up. It was a terrible circumstance, but they could still worship and praise God in the jail. I believe that Paul saw that God was the true ruler on all, so they could praise God solely because of his greatness and faithfulness. The Bible says that the praise from Israel is the throne of God. When we life up our voice to praise, we are acknowledging that his throne will be established in our midst. As soon as you shift your eyesight to our great God, your perspective and outlook will start to broaden. More importantly, you will allow room to let God work on you. Therefore, the transformation of the early church took place because they were praising God in one accord and were no longer intimidated by the difficult circumstance around them. When they praise God, God show them that things that are destined in His will ultimate will come true!
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