This devotional is part of a five day reflection on calling within the church.
Many of us need some noise. Consider using this curated playlist of meditative songs as background.
Pause
Take a few moments to breathe. Set down your phone, remove distractions. Allow yourself to become present in this moment with the Spirit of God.
Jesus, I come to you today to see your Church more clearly, to love it more dearly, and to walk in my role of living in it and serving through it. Speak to me.
Reflect
In today’s reading, we’re looking at the first church—the first community of saints.
They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. Everyone was filled with awe at the many wonders and signs performed by the apostles. All the believers were together and had everything in common. They sold property and possessions to give to anyone who had need. Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.
The two key words in this passage are “devotion” and “together.” Devotion means to persist with closely or serve personally. Or in other words, attach yourself to the service of another. Here we see a glimpse of the early church, a community of people who were devoted not only to Jesus but also to one another. We see a beautiful picture of the results of a community of people who were so devoted to the gospel that they were devoted to one another. There isn’t even a taste of self-focused consuming of relationships or the desperate seeking of fulfillment from others. Instead, they were a people secure in God’s grace and salvation who engaged community as people full and ready to give.
Connected to this devotion is their togetherness, or their finding all things in common—unity. Their devotion to Jesus and one another resulted in unity. They lived more like a tight family than a loose collection of individuals. They didn’t consume each other. They clung to the gospel together. Then, what we see is this reality: the world around them began to change, too.
How do you come to community? What parts of this passage do you long for? What parts terrify you?
Ask
Spend time asking God to establish a community you can thrive in, one where you see the signs and wonders of God, one where you grow in your faith, and get to be a witness to others’ encountering Jesus as well. But also, ask for a community where you can give yourself.
Spirit, would you create in a us a people united and devoted to you? Would you keep us from being a people that consumes others, and instead give freely to one another?
Yield
This first community in Acts 2 was created by Christ. It wasn’t born in an executive plan. It was born through the work of the Spirit. Spend time yielding your own desires for community to be in a community established by Jesus and for Jesus.
Jesus, I want you to be the center of all we do and that we would treasure your presence with us. Jesus, go before us, and form Christian community in our midst. I don’t want community born of strategy, crowd management, or social needs. We want to know you and make you known.