READING: 1 Chronicles 25-26, Acts 1
Jesus had returned to the Father, but He had also told His disciples to wait in Jerusalem until God gave them power from on high (Luke 24:49). The disciples didn’t fully understand everything Jesus had said, but they did go to Jerusalem and wait. What they didn’t do was just wait; instead, they focused on praying together: “These all with one mind were continually devoting themselves to prayer, along with the women, and Mary the mother of Jesus, and with His brothers” (Acts 1:14). Together, united, focused, and intentional, they prayed.
We don’t know for certain what they prayed, but we can assume they were praying for God to send the Spirit Jesus had promised. That Spirit would empower them for witness, strengthen them in temptation, and compel them to the nations. He would supernaturally fall on them in the next chapter (Acts 2) and remain in them as God’s indwelling presence. He was, it appears, God’s answer to the prayers of Jesus’ followers.
I have said elsewhere that prayer is both a cry for relationship with God and a confession of dependence on Him. These early disciples prayed and waited for the Spirit; that is, they longed for God’s presence after Jesus had departed, and they knew they could never do what Jesus called them to do in their own power. Prayer paved the way for them to experience God’s presence.
PRAYER: “Father, move my heart to long for You and depend on You through prayer.”
TOMORROW’S READING: 1 Chronicles 27-29, Acts 2:1-36