Life Talk

Pursuit to Pentecost - Day 1

Scripture: Acts 2:1-4

Devotional:
Before there was wonder, there was waiting.

Before there was public power, there was a private pursuit.

Before there was 120 empowered, there was over 500 invited.

At the ascension of Jesus he invited over 500 ordinary men and women (fishermen, tax collectors, outsiders, doubting disciples, sign seekers) to climb the stairs of an upper room in Jerusalem to wait.  Wait for something they have yet to experience or have any idea to what exactly they were waiting for. Even still, 120 of those made the journey and did the most countercultural thing imaginable: they stayed. They tarried. They prayed together in one accord, day after day, waiting for a promise.

This is where Pentecost really begins, not in the sound of the mighty rushing wind, but in the quiet, costly discipline of private pursuit. They had no template for what they were waiting for. They had only the word of Jesus: "But wait for the Promise of the Father" in Acts 1:4.

There is something profound in this. Before God moves publicly, His work starts privately. The 120 had to be shaped through prayer, unity and surrender before they could be sent.

Don’t expect in the public space what you have yet to pursue in the private space.

Reflection: Will you make time to be intentional about private pursuit this week? Do you have a place for private pursuit to honest before God, hungry for more and are you willing to wait?