Because 50 Day 1
Because 50: Day 1
Scripture Reading: Acts 1:3-8
3After his suffering, he presented himself to them and gave many convincing proofs that he was alive. He appeared to them over a period of forty days and spoke about the kingdom of God. 4On one occasion, while he was eating with them, he gave them this command: “Do not leave Jerusalem, but wait for the gift my Father promised, which you have heard me speak about. 5For John baptized with water, but in a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.”
6Then they gathered around him and asked him, “Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel?”
7He said to them: “It is not for you to know the times or dates the Father has set by his own authority. 8But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”
Today’s Prayer:
Lord, use these 50 days to help me grow closer to You.
Going Deeper:
Over the course of the next 50 days, we’ll have a two and a half minute video, a Scripture reading and a prayer for you. We’ll also include this section where we’ll take the time to dig deeper into the Scriptures together and perhaps suggest a resource that you could use to dig deeper on your own.
This passage from Acts is one of the anchor passages for us through this series. What did Jesus speak to them about over the forty days? Why do you think that Jesus spent his last forty days talking with his disciples about the Kingdom of God? If Jesus spent those last moments with the disciples teaching them about it, what does it say about the importance of the topic?
The Kingdom of God was at the heart of most of Jesus’ teaching. Why? Because he knew there was a longing within each of us for something more. Frederick Buechner writes:
“If we only had eyes to see and ears to hear and wits to understand, we would know that the Kingdom of God in the sense of holiness, goodness, beauty is as close as breathing and is crying out to born both within ourselves and within the world; we would know that the Kingdom of God is what we all of us hunger for above all other things even when we don’t know its name or realize that it’s what we’re starving to death for. The Kingdom of God is where our best dreams come from and our truest prayers. We glimpse it at those moments when we find ourselves being better than we are and wiser than we know. We catch sight of it when at some moment of crisis a strength seems to come to us that is greater than our own strength. The Kingdom of God is where we belong. It is home, and whether we realize it or not, I think we are all of us homesick for it.”
As you pray today asking God to grow you closer to Him over these next 50 days, ask Him to give you a glimpse of what the Kingdom of God should look like in your life.