阅读经文 

当一个人害怕时，你可以从他们的眼睛里看出来。我和一群学生一起参加了一次短期服侍，我们在一家汤屋提供食物。一些食客之间发生了小规模的争吵，我可以看到学生的眼中满是惧怕。我们很快就把学生们带进了厨房，并在门口看着管理汤屋的修女们处理这场争吵。我们在那一刻经历的惧怕是真实的。

我记得修女们事后与我们交谈，并谈到了我们的惧怕。虽然她们理解，但她们似乎并没有同样的恐惧。她们以前见过这些事，似乎一点都不紧张。有时，需要一个不害怕的人说出别人的惧怕，才能摆脱它。

在我们今天使徒行传的故事中，当狱卒意识到他负责的所有囚犯都可能已经逃跑时，他非常害怕，准备自杀。但保罗对他喊道，不必伤害自己。不用害怕！大家都还在那里。

作为跟随基督的人，我们不需要害怕。而且我们也可以帮助别人说出他们的惧怕。事实上，我们有责任以这种方式帮助他人，把他们带到耶稣面前。你知道有谁生活在惧怕中吗？你如何能与他们并肩作战，帮助他们走出恐惧呢？

When someone is afraid, you can see it in their eyes. I was on a service trip with a group of students, and we were serving a meal at a soup kitchen. A small fight broke out among some of the patrons, and I could see fear building in the students’ eyes. We quickly got the students into the kitchen and watched from the door as the nuns who ran the soup kitchen handled the fight. But the fear that we experienced in that moment was real.

I remember the nuns talking to us afterward and commenting on our fear. While they understood it, they didn’t seem to have the same fear. They had seen all of this before and didn’t seem nervous about it at all. Sometimes it takes someone who is not experiencing fear to call out the fear in someone else in order to get rid of it.

In our story from Acts today, when the jailer realized that all of the prisoners in his charge might have escaped, he was so afraid that he was ready to take his own life. But Paul shouted to him that there was no need to harm himself. There was no need to be afraid! Everyone was still there.

As followers of Christ, we don’t need to be afraid. And we can also help others address their fears. In fact, we have the duty to help others in this way by introducing them to Jesus. Whom do you know that is living in fear? How can you come alongside them and help them out of their fears?