⁶So when they met together, they asked him, “Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel?”  ⁷He said to them: “It is not for you to know the times or dates the Father has set by his own authority. ⁸But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”  ⁹After he said this, he was taken up before their very eyes, and a cloud hid him from their sight.  ¹⁰They were looking intently up into the sky as he was going, when suddenly two men dressed in white stood beside them. ¹¹“Men of Galilee,” they said, “why do you stand here looking into the sky? This same Jesus, who has been taken from you into heaven, will come back in the same way you have seen him go into heaven.”

¹²Then they returned to Jerusalem from the hill called the Mount of Olives, a Sabbath day’s walk from the city. ¹³When they arrived, they went upstairs to the room where they were staying. Those present were Peter, John, James and Andrew; Philip and Thomas, Bartholomew and Matthew; James son of Alphaeus and Simon the Zealot, and Judas son of James. ¹⁴They all joined together constantly in prayer, along with the women and Mary the mother of Jesus, and with his brothers.

Meditation:

1. During the days between his resurrection and ascension, Jesus demonstrated and spoke truth about himself in order to prepare his disciples for a clearly defined task.  Jesus instructed His disciples to witness to the world, but they must first wait for the Holy Spirit.  Similarly, when God entrusts us with a task, we need to first depend on the power of the Holy Spirit.
2. Do you like to get ahead of God and try to depend on your own abilities and enthusiasm, not knowing that WAITING is also part of God’s plan?
3. Pray for the Holy Spirit to show you specific areas where you are “impatient to wait” and have gone ahead of God with your own ideas of what is good.

Family Time (Begin this time by reading the passage above using a children’s Bible.)

Acts tells how the gospel gets spread.  Jesus wants us to share the gospel to others.  List ways you can share the gospel in your neighbourhood, your city, your province, your country and overseas.  Write the names of people who need to hear the gospel.

Prayer & Journaling:  On your prayer journal, as you listen to God, write down a few thoughts, questions, words, names, drawings, or anything that has come to your mind during this time.

Proverbs for Today 12:1-3

¹ Whoever loves discipline loves knowledge, but he who hates reproof is stupid.  ² A good man obtains favor from the Lord, but a man of evil devices he condemns.  ³ No one is established by wickedness, but the root of the righteous will never be moved.