Reach Up
“So when the apostles were with Jesus, they kept asking him, ‘Lord, has the time come for you to free Israel and restore our kingdom?’” - Acts 1:6
Why settle for good enough and getting by when we can be more, have more, and do more for the kingdom of God? If we are going to go from good to great, the Bible gives us three things we must do. The first thing we must do is “reach up.”
When the followers of Jesus are wondering about their fate and their future, the text says they take their questions and their concerns to the Lord who held their future in His hands. Acts 1:6 says, “So when the apostles were with Jesus, they kept asking him, ‘Lord, has the time come for you to free Israel and restore our kingdom?’”
In other words, they ask Jesus, “So, what’s next?” When faced with uncertainty about what lay ahead, they see this as a time to seek direction, guidance, and reassurance from God. They want to know the status of the promise God made to them and to their ancestors. Is this the end or is there more that God has in store for their lives?
They wanted to know if it was all over. Did they leave everything to follow Jesus for nothing, or was there more? So rather than imploding or exploding, they took their burdens to the Lord and they left them there. They looked up, and they reached up as if they were lifting up their petitions, their pleas, and their supplications, to appeal for answers that only come from God.
Like these followers, we must reach up as we build upon the past and look forward to the future. Reaching up is about remembering the primacy of God and the worship of God as the central feature and component of our daily lives. We must recommit ourselves to looking to God for hope, inspiration, and direction so that we know what to do next!
Why settle for good enough and getting by when we can be more, have more, and do more for the kingdom of God? If we are going to go from good to great, the Bible gives us three things we must do. The first thing we must do is “reach up.”
When the followers of Jesus are wondering about their fate and their future, the text says they take their questions and their concerns to the Lord who held their future in His hands. Acts 1:6 says, “So when the apostles were with Jesus, they kept asking him, ‘Lord, has the time come for you to free Israel and restore our kingdom?’”
In other words, they ask Jesus, “So, what’s next?” When faced with uncertainty about what lay ahead, they see this as a time to seek direction, guidance, and reassurance from God. They want to know the status of the promise God made to them and to their ancestors. Is this the end or is there more that God has in store for their lives?
They wanted to know if it was all over. Did they leave everything to follow Jesus for nothing, or was there more? So rather than imploding or exploding, they took their burdens to the Lord and they left them there. They looked up, and they reached up as if they were lifting up their petitions, their pleas, and their supplications, to appeal for answers that only come from God.
Like these followers, we must reach up as we build upon the past and look forward to the future. Reaching up is about remembering the primacy of God and the worship of God as the central feature and component of our daily lives. We must recommit ourselves to looking to God for hope, inspiration, and direction so that we know what to do next!
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