May 24 Daily Devotional

Bible Reading

Acts 1:12–14

Devotional

Between the ascension of Christ and Pentecost the church of the Lord waited in expectation for the promised Comforter. This mutual hope united them. They had one hope and one faith. Together they met and prayed. All the disciples were there and also the women. Mary, the mother of the Lord, was there. She had met her Savior in her own Child. Now she waited for the promised Comforter. She is present with her other children. At first they did not believe in Jesus, but during their lives their hatred was changed into love. They now wait for the promised Comforter.

Are you also one of those who are gathered with the disciples and the women? Maybe you have been called out of the service of sin like Levi. Or maybe you are like Nathanael who beneath the fig tree had sought the Lamb of God in Scripture and by grace had found Him! Or maybe you are like Andrew who is not much in the foreground. Or you are like James, the son of Alphaeus. Not much is known about you but you commune with God.

Would you feel yourself at home at this meeting of the disciples? Or would you be there as a stranger? They were all united together. Nobody was the greatest, because what united them was not what they possessed but what they lacked. They were united in their need. All of them had their own testimony of how they had come to follow Jesus. But they didn’t find comfort in the knowledge of their own way. They could not live off what had happened in the past. God’s Spirit had to come to fill their empty soul. It is precisely God’s Spirit who causes one to ask for the coming of God’s Spirit. And those at this meeting waited expectantly. They waited with hope and confidence. This hope was firm and sure, for Christ Himself had told them, “I will not leave you comfortless” (John 14: 18). Faith pleads upon God’s own words. That is the advent of Pentecost. That is how “in thee the fatherless findeth mercy” (Hos. 14:3).

 

From The Everlasting Word by Frans Bakker, compiled and translated by Gerald R. Procee. Reformation Heritage Books and Free Reformed Publications, 2007. Used by permission. For further information, click here.