The Acts God Desires
I have been reading through Acts. I have always prayed that God would give me the ability to have power in my faith like what you read about in the Bible, and I still think that would be awesome. But the fact is that I have never healed anyone or raised anyone from the dead. I am realizing though that there were tons of people – literally thousands upon thousands – who didn’t perform any miracles. They were the huge group of pepole gathering around the apostles to witness the miracles. Most of the people from the early church just loved God and worshipped Him from their hearts, and took care of their families well, and shared sacrificially with their neighbors, and participated in honest and excellent business practices, and they believed. They weren’t rock stars of faith who everyone recognized walking down the street. But that’s ok with me. Maybe quiet humility and silent obedience is just as precious and pleasing to God as scales falling from a blind man’s eyes.
Acts 9:31b says: ”And walking in the fear of the Lord and in the comfort of the Holy Spirit it [the Church] multiplied.” Instead of pining to move mountains with my faith (which would still be great, don’t get me wrong!), I just want to truly walk in the fear of the Lord. I want His opinion of me and His approval to matter above everything else. If the fear of the Lord could be foremost in my mind and heart, the other distractions are automtaically removed – whether others like me, whether my boss likes my work, whether girls make wise choices under my leadership, whether people are trustworthy or will betray me, what my future holds, how much money I make, what my coworkers or people in the community think of me. If I can keep the fear of the Lord in its rightful place, the next step – walking in the comfort of the Holy Spirit – comes automatically.
The things that those guys in Acts were going through were pretty hardcore. All the apostles got imprisoned and miraculosly released, Steven was stoned and NOT raised from the dead, church members were forced to move their homes to other cities because of persecution, and God told poor Ananias to visit Saul who three days earlier was trying to snuff out or imprison people like him who were a part of The Way. I mean, those guys needed a massage! And yet, they walked in the comfort of the Holy Spirit.
How many times do I get my perspective out of whack, especially at work, when something doesn’t go my way? I am all stressed and upset and worried over things much smaller than that. I do not walk in the comfort of the Holy Spirit. I miss out on my burden being light because the fear of the Lord slips down below some of the other fears on my list, so there is no comfort for me.
God, help me to walk in the fear of the Lord and the comfort of the Holy Spirit every day for all of my life.
Amen and let it be.
Mom said,
December 11, 2009 at 11:00 am
May it be so.