Wait for It
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You’ve probably heard the saying, “It’s worth the wait!” Hopefully, you’ve had many opportunities in life to experience that phrase proved true. As I write this reflection, I’m a bit stressed as I await and prepare for a promotional exam at the fire department. I find myself wishing that the test would come and go along with the stress that comes with it.
I’ve been encouraged this week as I’ve reflected on the second half of Acts 1 and the discipline of Jesus’ disciples to pray to the LORD and wait on His direction in order to act. Prayer is a discipline and discipline is a word for Jesus’ followers. Prayer was a learned practice for the disciples as they had watched Jesus set THE example for them in His life and ministry. Jesus was a man of prayer and so must be His disciples.
In Acts 1:12-26, we see the disciples with some heavy decisions that need to be handled. What will they do? Just back in the first half of this chapter, we heard Jesus order His disciples to go to Jerusalem and wait on the baptism of His Holy Spirit. In that moment, they seemed confused regarding whose kingdom they are most concerned with – their own or something greater. After Jesus’ ascension, the disciples decide to obey Jesus through waiting and praying for His guidance. What follows is that their lives become completely surrendered to the will of Christ as they embark on the great unknown of living as His followers.
It’s in the prayer and waiting that God prepares His people for the work He will call them to do. As I prepare for the upcoming exam, I am blessed to consider how it is preparing me for more. The exam itself is not the ultimate goal so much as the personal development that comes from study and application in the meantime. Prayer and waiting on the LORD can be like that as we see here with Jesus’ disciples. The ends for which we pray are a means that help us develop spiritually to depend more on the power of Jesus and His desires rather than on our own base instincts or conventional wisdom.
Running is one of the ways I condition for my line of work. Sometimes, I’m tempted to only focus on the end of my run. But for those of you that have experience with running, the endorphins come along the way in the run rather than at the end. Our relationship with Jesus through prayer and waiting can be like that. What we find in the process is that it’s worth the wait on Jesus because in our journey with Him, it’s the relationship of watching Him work that brings the greatest joy to our lives. I’ve often envied the writings of Christian mystics because of their inclination to pursue greater intimacy with Jesus through ongoing constant prayer. Isn’t intimacy with Jesus what we are all looking for in the first place? There’s a phrase that is sometimes used to describe religious people – “they’re too heavenly minded to do any earthly good.” But that statement is really impossible because the more any person truly tastes of Heaven (God’s Kingdom), they can’t help but be led to do what is for the earthly good as His Kingdom intends to come on earth as it is in Heaven. Jesus always leads us to a greater Kingdom than our own. Truly praying and waiting on Him is always rewarded with renewal and restoration toward our created purpose.
At the end of this passage, we see God has chosen Matthias to be one of the twelve Apostles. We never hear mention of that name again in the New Testament and yet we know that he carried on in the mission he was chosen for – a mission with eternal consequences for him and the rest of the world. I can only imagine that the way Matthias was ushered into his Apostolic office became a daily reminder to him of how he should continue in it always trusting God in prayer and waiting for the LORD to provide the direction and power to perform on the call.
May we pray His Kingdom come on earth and in our lives as it is in Heaven for the sake of His call on us. Let us stop trying to live for Him in our own power and wait on God’s Holy Spirit instead. May we experience our greatest joy in witnessing how awesome and great is our Leader! Jesus is always worth the wait!
Grateful and hopeful in Christ,
Jon