And they devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers. Acts 2:42
This world seeks to pull us apart and isolate us. Our enemy, the devil, wants us to be divided and against one another. As followers of Christ we are called to stand for Him and oppose sin. However, sometimes we take that same mindset and start applying it to anyone we don’t agree with. We lose sight of the fact that while we may not always agree with our brothers and sisters in Christ, we are a part of the same family.
As we go through the book of Acts at LWF, I have been meditating on the beginning of the book and the start of the church. Sometimes it is good to look at the beginning and get back to the basics. What did the early church focus on? What was it founded on?
God worked in a miraculous way on the day of Pentecost and the church exploded in Jerusalem. And while it is amazing to see how God worked at that time, what has stood out to me is how God continues to work through His Spirit today. While we may not see the same number of people saved at one time, we do see God work in the same way using His Word and the Holy Spirit to convict and bring repentance.
The early church grew by devoting themselves to God’s Word, fellowship, and prayer. The priorities for the church have not changed since. We are to be devoted to the Word of God, the fellowship of believers, and prayer. As I meditated on this verse, I was challenged to think through what I am devoted to. The term devoted here brings the idea of a steadfast and single-minded fidelity to a certain course of action. They were determined to follow God’s Word, to fellowship with one another, and to seek God in prayer. They were focused on what brought them together in the first place, and this focus brought about a God-honoring unity.
It can be easy to lose sight of the fact that we have more in common with fellow believers than not. We are all sinners who have been saved by God’s grace. None of us earned or deserved this salvation. God saved us from the judgment our sin deserves. When we devote ourselves to the truth of His Word, we see ourselves more accurately. Our joy in Him increases and our differences with other believers fade. When we devote time and effort to fellowship, we are encouraged by others. When we devote time to prayer, God works in amazing and miraculous ways.
As the world seeks to pull us apart and isolate us, as our enemy seeks to cause division, we need to devote ourselves to what is important. The early church would be tested with distractions and issues that had to be dealt with. In Acts 6 they had to work on how to serve the widows of the church correctly. They worked through and dealt with the issue so that it would not continue to be a distraction or cause further division. The early church had to struggle through how to have Jews and Gentiles worship together. Just as they had struggles, so will we. However, our goal should always be to get back to unity in our devotion to Christ. Don’t let the distractions of this world or disagreements with others keep you from devotion to Christ and fellowship with others.
When a Christian shuns fellowship with other Christians, the devil smiles. When he stops studying the Bible, the devil laughs. When he stops praying, the devil shouts for joy. Corrie Ten Boom
Comentarios