Are You Devoted To Prayer? [Acts 1]

6So when they had come together, they were asking Him, saying, "Lord, is it at this time You are restoring the kingdom to Israel?"

 7He said to them, "It is not for you to know times or epochs which the Father has fixed by His own authority; 8but you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be My witnesses both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and even to the remotest part of the earth."

  9And after He had said these things, He was lifted up while they were looking on, and a cloud received Him out of their sight.

10And as they were gazing intently into the sky while He was going, behold, two men in white clothing stood beside them.11They also said, "Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking into the sky? This Jesus, who has been taken up from you into heaven, will come in just the same way as you have watched Him go into heaven."

  12Then they returned to Jerusalem from the mount called Olivet, which is near Jerusalem, a Sabbath day's journey away.

13When they had entered the city, they went up to the upper room where they were staying; that is, Peter and John and James and Andrew, Philip and Thomas, Bartholomew and Matthew, James the son of Alphaeus, and Simon the Zealot, and Judas the son of James. 14These all with one mind were continually devoting themselves to prayer, along with the women, and Mary the mother of Jesus, and with His brothers. 

 

What a time of transition and wonder.  This group of like-minded people who had been together with Jesus during His ministry on earth had just watched Him taken up into heaven. He had told them to wait in Jerusalem until they had received the Holy Spirit. I am sure they were wondering what that was all about.  They waited together and "were continually devoting themselves to prayer."

What would you have done? I think I would have been right there with them, banding together, reviewing all the details about His resurrection and ascension.  I would have been walking around in wonder of what had happened in the last two months.  I hope I would have prayed.  I know in the times that I have been devoted to prayer I have experienced spiritual growth and peace. 

 

What was it He said?  "Peace I leave with you; My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Do not let your heart be troubled, nor let it be fearful." (John 14:27).  They took their wonder and uncertainty to the Lord and they received His peace.

 

Lord, I thank You for leaving peace for me even in uncertain times.  Not the kind the world offers but Your peace - being at one with the Father.


Verna McCrillis, 4/14/2009