Total dependance. Absolute trust. No fear or worry. Hands open, life given up. Total provision. Absolute love. Never-ending faithfulness and care. This is how the new Christians in the Bible lived, and how they saw God respond.
I've been reading through Acts in the past month or so and remain so struck by the faithfulness, passion, and sincerity with which the disciples and Christians lived.
I read something somewhere that talked about living for Christ with desperation. I like the way that sounds. Being desperate for Him, desperate to do His will, further His kingdom, desperate to see His kingdom come. Desperate for His love, desperate for His grace. Desperate to be weak so He can be strong. Desperate for everything that comes with being His, whether it's in times of sadness or joy, desperate to be His, enveloped in His arms.
That's how the believers in Acts lived. With total abandon of self they sacrificed their time, comfort, and lives for their Jesus. They preached His love and His story no matter what. Unafraid of the repercussions, they knew that death was no end, simply a beginning. It wasn't a hindrance, giving up their lives for Jesus was the adrenaline pumping through their veins.
They didn't worry about food, comfort, house, clothes. They sought refuge in the homes of other church-members, their every need provided by God, often through the faithfulness of fellow believers. They cared for each other.
The chapters in Acts emphasize the importance of fellowship. They didn't just have church together, they had life together. Gathering to pray, they truly sought after God as one body, whole in their love, passion, and desperation to better know the One who had died for them. Through those times of prayer they grew closer together, knowing each other in a deeper, truer way, and getting to know God better too.
They knew what they believed in. They knew without doubt that Jesus had lived, loved, died, and risen. They fully believed in His power, grace, justice, love, mercy, and sacrifice. And because of this knowledge, they poured their lives into sharing those truths, to telling those in their world that Jesus was the Christ, the Messiah, the One True God, the Holy One, the Deliverer, that He had come and gone and their salvation could be found in Him alone.
That's all that mattered to them, sharing this truth, telling this tale of love. They didn't care, worry about, or fear anything, because God was all that mattered, Jesus' love was the driving force in their lives.
Why can't we live like that? Why can't we live with such desperate abandon for the God who loves us more than we can imagine?
Why don't we pursue Him like that? Why don't we live in a manner focused wholly on glorifying His name, furthering His kingdom, making His love known?
Why do we define a "good life" as a monetarily rich life, when Christ says a rich life is one founded in Him, one funded by Him, one focused on Him?
We should be living radically, whole-heartedly, desperately, for Jesus.
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