Read Acts 1:1-11
Just a few weeks ago, we celebrated the resurrection of Jesus! And in this chapter of Acts, Jesus has been resurrected and is teaching the people and showing Himself and training the disciples to go out and spread the Gospel. For 40 days, he taught and trained on the coming of God's Kingdom. When I read about this, I thought about how Jesus had ministered to the people and to the disciples for three years before He was crucified, and then after He was resurrected, He continued to teach. Jesus is so patient with us isn't He!
Jesus tells them that He would ascend into heaven and then they would receive the Holy Spirit, God's ver presence, to preach and do miracles in POWER. So, Jesus then ascends into heaven, like He said He would do, and the disciples stay there "fixated" on the sky. What do you think they were thinking as they stood there? Maybe they were overwhelmed by everything that had just happened...maybe they were hoping He would come back because they felt unprepared...maybe they were wondering if they really would receive the power they needed. Whatever they were thinking, they couldn't move. After a while, two men came by (who knows if they were angels or not) and snapped them out of it.
As I was reading these verses, I felt that God was telling me a few things I needed to hear.
1. Jesus gives us all something to do on this earth. Actually, He gives us a lot of stuff to do on this earth. Sometimes we know we have to do something because we have the talent to do it...like the talent to teach, sing, draw, etc. Sometimes He tells us to do specific tasks in our daily routines. He could tell us to call someone, visit someone in the hospital, take someone food. And then sometimes He tells us to do things that will change our lives forever...move to Guatemala, change jobs, marry, have kids. A couple of verses to back this up are Psalm 16: 11 "You make known to me the path of life; You will fill me with joy in your presence, with eternal pleasures at your right hand" and Jeremiah 29:11 "'For I know the plans I have for you,' declares the Lord, 'plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.'" God gives us things to do, but...
2. It is up to us to act on what Jesus tells us to do. After He speaks, we must move, not just stay "fixated" on the sky. Many times, when the things are "small" that He tells us to do, we get busy and just forget to do them or brush them off and say that He didn't really mean for me to do that. When God gives us a talent to do something like sing, many times we just sing in the car (even secular songs) and do not glorify God with our talents at all. Or, with the talent that we have, we bury it and don't let anyone even see the God-given talent that is within us. And eventually, we lose it. And when God tells us to do something that we know will change lives forever, we get overwhelmed and never even move. God trusts us, but we don't trust Him or ourselves. Although in verse 8 in Acts 1 Jesus told them what to do and that the Holy Spirit would help them in power, they didn't move because they (might have been) thinking about the plan of how to "be witnesses to the ends of the earth" when Jesus told them to just start in Jerusalem. They were looking at the whole sky and not just on what Jesus was telling them to do. We do the same things! When God tells us to do something, we start trying to figure out stuff all by ourselves. We don't stay focused on the power the we have in Jesus, and we get overwhelmed thinking about starting that Bible study, for example, and we don't even start because we already feel like failures. Or, we start the Bible study, and only two people come, and we feel like failures because we said to ourselves, 'I'm going to start a Bible study and touch all of Guatemala.'. If God told you to start a Bible study and you started it, aren't you successful because you obeyed God? Yes. Another example. God told us to move to Guatemala. We moved here. But for a LONG time, we felt like big failures as missionaries. Why? We moved to Guatemala like God told us to, so shouldn't we have felt sure and firm in the power of God? Well, we didn't. We felt like failures because we were "fixated on the sky" and not on what God told us to do. God is our refuge and He provides everything we need to do what He has given us to do. There is a song I sing here called "Soy valiente y esforzada", which means "I am Brave and Strengthened". The first verse says, "I'm not giving up. I'm not looking to the right or to the left. My eyes are fixed on Jesus." We start to lose the power that God equips us with when we don't keep our eyes on Him.
Psalm 141:8 "But my eyes are fixed on You, Sovereign Lord; in You I take refuge and 2 Corinthians 4:16-18 "Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal."
3. Finally, we need to be an encouragement to others. Like the two men that reassured the disciples that everything that Jesus said was true, we need to be willing to encourage others when they are struggling. I wonder how long the disciples would have just stood there starring at the sky if those two men wouldn't have come by. Don't get so fixated on your life that you forget to encourage your brothers and sisters in Christ when they are down. Pray for them, but also uplift when God gives you the opportunity to do so.
Here is my encourage for you today...don't lose the blessings of following God and obeying Him because you are overwhelmed by what is around you or because you think you will not make a difference or because you are scared of failure. God has given you something to do. Seek Him and do it.
Brandi
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