Acts 1:12-14

Acts 1:12-14
English Standard Version (ESV)

 As a parent, it's an amazing feeling when you tell your children to do something, and they go do it.  Most of the time, when I'm telling my children to do something, it's usually for their own good, even if they wouldn't agree with that.  They fight and resist, preferring their own will, even when my long-term goal is for their flourishing.  They have such short-term vision that they can't recognize the benefits that some things will offer them.
  As a Christian, I understand exactly what my children are going through.  So often, I choose short-term ways of living that are contrary to my long-term benefit.  I avoid spiritual disciplines or pursue short-term pleasures that may compromise my ability to perceive's God's work in my life over the long run.  I opt for what I want, because that's clearer to me, over what God wants, although that is better for me.
  Now that Jesus has left the disciples, it would be easy for them to go their own ways, thinking that their work is concluded.  They might be tempted to give up, wondering what change their can really be.  If they had stopped gathering, who knows what might have happened.  Would Pentecost still have occurred?  I don't know.  God would have found a way, but fortunately this faithful group continued to gather, continued to pursue God's will, and as a result the New Testament church grew out of a body of believers willing to be faithful above all else, just as God had charged them.