“They were continually devoting themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer.”

    The book of Acts describes how the Holy Spirit inaugurated and worked through the early church. I have recently been studying Acts and I can’t help but love the refreshing simplicity of God’s plan for the church. The verse above (2:42) seems to summarize the peaceful rhythm that the Holy Spirit cultivated in the beginning of the church. That peaceful rhythm was continual devotion; devotion to God’s Word, devotion to one another in fellowship and to God in communion, and devotion to prayer. Interestingly enough, I believe that this peaceful rhythm is the same type of rhythm that the Holy Spirit wants to cultivate in us. Right now, it seems difficult to find any rhythm of life. Pretty much all of us are off of our daily routines. (I’m pretty sure the term “shelter in place” had no meaning to me a few weeks ago.) We are all trying to find a “new normal” right now. Here’s an interesting thought, what if we allowed God to ground this “new normal” in the same peaceful rhythm that He gave the early church? Think about it – devotion to God’s Word; if anything we are probably more apt to be devoted to God’s Word right now. Fellowship, it is true that our organized church fellowship has been somewhat disrupted. But, our fellowship with our family and neighbors seems to have been enhanced in a lot of ways. I would encourage you to think about having a special time of communion with family around a meal where you first enjoy the memorial of the Lord’s supper and have each person say some way that they have seen God at work. Finally, what if we devoted ourselves to prayer during this time; I mean actually devoted ourselves to prayer? What if we recalibrated our lives right now to make prayer the top priority of our lives? I doubt anyone would argue that devoting one’s self to prayer wouldn’t result in greater peace. 

    I definitely don’t have all the answers. But, I know the One who does, and He has given us the Bible to provide insight into how life works best. I truly believe that regardless of our circumstances God desires for us to find peace. We who know Him are His church. The Holy Spirit desires the same things for us that He did in the early church. Let’s let Him have His way. It seems pretty evident that He is drawing us to devote ourselves to His Word, each other, and Himself. May we know His peace now and forevermore. Amen