Acts 1:12–14 (NASB) Then
they returned to Jerusalem from the mount called Olivet, which is near
Jerusalem, a Sabbath day’s journey away. When they had entered the city, they
went up to the upper room where they were staying; that is, Peter and John and
James and Andrew, Philip and Thomas, Bartholomew and Matthew, James the son of
Alphaeus, and Simon the Zealot, and Judas the son of James. These all with one
mind were continually devoting themselves to prayer, along with the women, and
Mary the mother of Jesus, and with His brothers.
“With a dim presentiment of what is coming, with hears which
throb and swell under the excitement of expectation, and heaving with wondering
thoughts of the great things about to be revealed, they sit there in that upper
room for ten long days, and wait for the promise of the Father. Verily it is an
impressive, a sublime scene. But how do they wait? Do they sit still and
silent, Quaker fashion, all that time expecting the descent of the Power? No;
the meeting in the upper room was not a Quaker meeting. They prayed they even
transacted business; for in those days Peter stood up and proposed the election
of a new apostle in the room of Judas, gone to his own place. Nor was their
meeting a dull one, as those may imagine who have never passed through any
great spiritual crisis, and to whom waiting on God is a synonym for listless
indolence.” The Training of the Twelve, A. B. Bruce, pp. 539.
Many times in crisis moments we are told to sit and wait
upon the Lord for His further direction. While this might work many times for
some; we might have another option. Many years ago, I cannot remember from
which author, I read something that challenged my thinking in this area of
waiting. Bruce alludes to this in his paragraph above as he states the activity
of the apostles…
Sometimes, we think that we must wait upon the Lord to do the work that is set out
ahead of us. We wait upon the Lord to do
the work, when in fact we should still be busy as Peter during this ten day
waiting period. Business as Bruce states or those things we have been taught by
Jesus were conducted by the apostles during the waiting period. As I said before,
the unknown author I was trying to remember (Perhaps Henry Blackaby) stated
that many times we ask God to do things in our lives, while never completing
the work He has already asked us to perform. It falls incomplete before His
throne. We should always be busy about doing the last thing God asked us to perform. Perhaps many times we are
asking too soon for God to perform or do something which He has not seen completed
in His last request. When in doubt as what to do, sometimes it may be that we
need to stay busy in the last thing He asked us to do before asking for
something new. This way we are not found inactive when He arrives and gives us
more to conduct for His kingdom.
I believe that Jesus knew the things He taught the apostles
over His ministry here on earth and instructed them to continue in those things
throughout their lifetime; even while they were called to wait upon the Holy
Spirit’s arrival. The Bible tells us that from the point of their arrival in
the upper room, “they continued with one accord in prayer and supplication.”
They prayed without fainting, without wearying, with one heart and mind.”
(Bruce, pp. 539) This is not inactivity. It is productivity. Are you productive
while you wait? Should you? Stay busy and be found faithful in all things, not
just what you feel is the next step for your life.
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