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Time With God - Acts 1
by Jennie, age 20, from Sweden The book of acts is written by Luke the doctor, the same Luke who wrote the gospel of Luke. In the gospel he wrote about what Jesus said and did, in acts he finishes his story with writing about how the work of Jesus continued even after he had gone back to heaven. Luke was not a jew himself, but he knew the old testament and the culture at the time very well. TIME Read Psalm 34:1-8. Focus especially on verse 1. No matter what your circumstances are like, take some time and praise the Lord for who he is. Read Acts 1:1-11 Take a minute and just think about who the disciples were before they met Jesus. Do you remember what the jews thought the Messiah would do? How was Jesus different from their expectations? In v. 4 Jesus tells them to wait. What did they wait for? Why did they have to wait? Look at v. 6. Even after having spent three years with Jesus the disciples were still confused. In their minds they still think that Jesus will save them from their visible problems here and now - the romans. That's not what Jesus did when he lived and did his ministry on earth. Still, when he dies and rises again, the disciples bring this up again. It seems as if they don't understand what Jesus is actually doing - that he's not restoring the old israel, but restoring humanity. Take a minute and think about what you're waiting for. What are your expectations on Jesus? Are you waiting for his holy spirit to work in you, or are you waiting for all the answers and for your problems to go away? Look at v.7 and 8. What is Jesus response to them? I love the word BUT in the beginning of verse 8. We don't know everything, we don't understand everything - and we don't need to. It's not for us to have everything figured out - BUT it is for us to go, in His power. The disciples needed first to WAIT for the spirit and then to GO do God's work. Do you think it's important to do it in that order? Do you ever try to do it differently? Go to Ecclesiastes 3:1-8 Where are you in your life right now? What time or season are you in? Do you need to be still and wait for God, or do you need to be bold and start moving in His power? Take some time and talk to God about it. Listen to him and write down your thoughts. If anything big has come up during this time, talk to someone you trust who can pray with you. Finish by going back to Psalm 34:1 and thank God for who he is and what he is doing in your life. GOD'S WORD IN YOU Read Psalm 119:9-16 as a prayer from you to your Father. Ask God to speak to you from His word and make it alive for you today. Read Acts 1:12-26 All the disciples gathered - just like Jesus had told them - and waited in prayer for God to speak. Among the disciples we find the brothers of Jesus (v.14). Go to John 7:5. Why do you think the brothers started to believe in Jesus? After a few days Peter stood up among the disciples (v.15) and talked. Do you remember who Peter was? He was only a fisherman, yet he seems to know the old testament well (v.16, 20-22). In those days all jewish boys studied the Torah from age 6 until age 10. By then they knew the first five books by heart. The bright ones were picked out by rabbis to get more teaching and eventually become teachers themselves. The rest followed their fathers in the family business - like a fisherman. No Rabbi picked Peter - until Jesus came. Still, Peter knew the word of God. He had studied it when he was a child, and the whole society was built on the scriptures. How can we see that in the story where they pick out the 12th apostle? How did it help Peter to know the word of God? How much of God's word do you know? How does it affect your life? How important is God's word to you in your everyday life? At the end the apostles cast lots to see who would join them - they let God decide. Now that we have the Holy Spirit, how does God guide you? Think about how you can make God a bigger part of your life. Write down your thoughts, and talk to God about it. Memorize Ps 37:31 - "The law of his God is in his heart; his feet do not slip." Are you that kind of person? Do you want to be?
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