And they devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers. Acts 2:42
A new desire came to the first Christians, and they started doing life differently with a different discipline and religious beat. Not as a to-do list, but as a must-do lifestyle. As they repented, believed, and got baptized in water, they started living differently in the community.
This new community of Jesus’ followers was in the world but was being formed differently than the world they used to belong to. The internal formation process included external devotion in the apostles’ teaching, praying together, having sincere fellowship, and receiving sacraments (all Jesus’ followers were baptized and took what today we call Communion).
They were devoted to doing these foundational disciplines. The word “Devoted” in Greek is proskarteréō, meaning “to continue to do something with intense effort, with the possible implication of despite difficulty – ‘to devote oneself to, to keep on, to persist in'”.
What made these people hungry for the message of the apostles, committed to fellowship, eager to pray, and desiring to share their food with each other?
They were serious in this journey called the life of faith. They had an experience with God (everyone’s experience is different) and they wanted more. They wanted to please God and wanted to see God manifested in their lives. They had seen or heard about the miracles done through apostles in Jesus’ name.
I believe all this hunger for God starts when people understand that they have failed the first and the most important commandment: Love God with all your heart and they repent by doing serious steps towards a lifestyle that helps every Christian with positioning well the love priorities.
Without repentance from the old way of living, there is no desire for the new way. Jesus warned his listeners that like none put new clothes as patches to old ones, so no serious follower of Jesus would keep his old habits with some Sunday updates. You must be born again to see the Kingdom of God.
Today, there are people who go to church but are not born again from the Spirit, so they are not able to see and experience the Kingdom of God and they have no hunger towards experiencing this Kingdom where they live.
Today, we all should check the motives and the orientation of our hearts. We should ask for a new desire for the Lord
Brother Endrit Journey 