“They were
continually devoting themselves to the apostle’s teaching and to fellowship, to
the breaking of bread and to prayer” (Acts 2:42).
Acts 2:42 provides a
good pattern for the Christian life, that goes further than only daily bible
reading. In Acts 2:42 we see that the early church spent a lot of time together.
Their lives were in danger and so being together out of harms way was the best
thing for them to do. Togetherness is still an important aspect of church
today, and when we are gathered the four devotions spelled out in Acts 2:42 ought
to be the center of our activity. These four devotions are to be ongoing (note
the “-ing” in v. 42). It is through these “devotions” we hear from God, and
draw near to Him, and draw near to each other.
For 2014 let us be:
1. Devoting ourselves to the apostle’s
teaching: This is referring to the Bible.
Christian men and women are marked by an ongoing devotion to God’s word.
We hear the voice of God through our bibles and we obey Him.
2. Devoting ourselves to fellowship:
Fellowship happens when the family of God is gathered. In fellowship we get to
know one another. In fellowship we are able to weep with those who are weeping,
thus bearing one another’s burdens. In fellowship we praise the Lord together
for the blessings we share. Courage and love come to us in our fellowship with
one another. To be the church we must be together often.
3. Devoting ourselves to communion: The
specific wording in the verse is “breaking of bread” but we understand that
this is one way of saying communion or Lord’s Supper. As a local body we have a
pattern of devoting ourselves to communion on the first Sunday of every month.
This is a good devotion. But let us aim to approach it with fresh hearts each
time; communion ought to bring forth personal praise and celebration for the
victory we have in Christ’s cross work.
4. Devoting ourselves to prayer: It amazes
me how easily prayer can be overlooked in our private lives and in our lives
together. Let prayer saturate you! Approach God as your Father since He truly
is. Pray appropriate prayers that are shaped by God Himself with the
instructions and model that He gave us in Matthew 6:1-15. Let your prayers be
influenced by other prayers in the Scriptures (for example, Acts 4:24-31;
Ephesians 1:18-23, 6:18-20).
Furthermore,
remember that your prayers don’t have to be long in order to be effective or
right. Short prayers that are to the point are excellent. Also, many of us have certain
things in place to encourage us to pray. For instance, we have prayer chains and our prayer times in our Sunday School classes and during our mid-week gatherings. Let’s
approach our prayer times with hearts that are truly open to God on behalf of
others. We don’t want to only ask God to remove difficulties, but that God
would enlighten the eyes of their hearts that they would “know what is the hope
of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the
saints, and what is the surpassing greatness of His power toward us who
believe” (Eph 1:18-19a).
