John 16:5–15; Acts 1:1–8 (read online ⧉)
Wait for the promise to be fulfilled.
Jesus directed his disciples to wait. They couldn’t even wait when Jesus was with them after the Resurrection. “Hey, Jesus, are we going to take over the world, now?”
Of course, they really didn’t say that. Not even close. However, restoring the Kingdom of Israel was, from a Jewish perspective, much the same thing. The Kingdom of Israel wasn’t just a nation. It was a God-blessed nation.
When they thought of a God-blessed nation, they were thinking that power and wealth would be restored to the Jews. The Romans would no longer be the occupiers. The Jews would once again occupy the place the belonged on the world stage.
Except, Jesus poked that balloon. “Sorry, the Father’s got something planned, and…you don’t get to know the entirety of the plan.” Can you imagine that? They don’t get to know the whole plan.
Sounds familiar, doesn’t it? Right now we are in the midst of trying to make plans while being undeniably confronted with the reality that all our plans are…fluid. We know that we don’t know what is going to happen. We still plan and dream, however.
The disciples weren’t even really trying to plan. God was writing a new page, and they didn’t know what to expect. They had to trust.
In a few weeks (May 31st), the church (the whole church, the Bride of Christ) will have a birthday…Pentecost. That promised counselor would change everything. In the meantime, they had to wait.
Sometimes we’re a little hard on them. We see what happened. These people, by and large, were the out-of-the-loop kind of folks. Nothing earth-shattering would happen with them. They were barely educated. They were not from the heart of Judah. They weren’t tied to the powerful. In fact, the powerful didn’t want much to do with them.
We do know that there had been a false Messiah from the region prior to Jesus. So, there was also the likely weight of the false Messiah, plus this guy who rose from the dead. Everything was new.
Just wait. Just trust. Be willing to trust and wait. Our world could use a lot of that now.
※ Prayer ※
Lord, as the world twists itself in an anxious circle, help us to be the unanxious ones. Guide our hearts and minds to not be anxious and trust in your timing and your plan, not of which is ours. Amen.
※ Questions ※
1) What are you waiting for?
2) Does your waiting require trust? If so, how’s that trust doing?
3) What are you doing in your wait? Are you preparing and making plans for when the brakes are loosed?