lion rebel

When I feel distant from God, often I turn to the things that have given me pleasure or satisfaction before I knew what I know now. Now I know that Jesus is my only source of pure satisfaction, but my initial reaction sometimes is to find again those things that I used to use – lust, depression, slothfulness…(I could go on naming things, but I’d probably get thrown out of the church).

The disciples, too, the first time Jesus “disappeared” on them, turned back to the things they had known before they knew Jesus. But now they had learned a lesson – that God is always before them and they had a mission – that they were to be witnesses of what God had done before them.

After Jesus’ abrupt departure the men and women who were closest to him did the best thing they could have done – they prayed. They could have returned again to the only thing they had known before Jesus, fishing and living life as if he’d never been. But instead they chose to seek him.

If we live without knowledge of God being with us, or without the intentional pursuit of a mission, we will inevitably return to our old ways without hesitation.

They all joined together constantly in prayer, along with the women and Mary the mother of Jesus, and with his brothers. [Acts 1 v. 14]

When will Your kingdom come? That is the question the disciples faced as they pondered Christ’s disappearance into the sky, the last time that they would physically see him before them. They had just finished asking Jesus when the kingdom would return, but his answer was vague – vague because only the Father knows that answer.

And so they were left with Your will be done. Because they couldn’t control the circumstances under which Christ would return, they had to face the reality that only under God’s command would he return.

Too often I find myself trying to figure out God’s plan according to my perception – how will this work in my life? when will he do what I want?

Instead, God will work in our lives, but only according to what he wants – it might be best if we, instead, wanted what he wanted – then we would get what we want.

Instead of looking to the sky, asking the same questions over and over, I propose we look to one another and shine the light that Christ has given us so that all can see this Christ that we worship. Then we will see our questions answered as quickly as we can ask them.

“But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth” [Acts 1 v. 8]