No Awe

DEVOTION

THE BOOK OF ACTS

NO AWE

Acts 2:42-43

42 They devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. 43 Everyone was filled with awe, and many wonders and miraculous signs were done by the apostles.

NIV

It would seem they had nothing else to do, as if they had no jobs, no homes to clean, no laundry to do, no cars to wash, or horses to groom, or food to buy at the market, for they were devoted to the apostles teaching and to the fellowship and breaking of bread and prayer. When would they have time for life? Of course this is simply a description of their life. They had other responsibilities and perhaps this was am explanation of how they spent their Sabbath. Yet it could also be how their spent their daily lives. We are going to see some other things they did, which does give way to a daily life, rather than simply actions on the Sabbath. But yet the fact remains they were filled with awe, and many wonders and miraculous signs were done by the apostles. Although we might say we are devoted to the apostle’s teaching, and to the fellowship, we have to ask ourselves are we really? It may be true we read our Bible; we may even study it, but are we devoted to the word? Have we given our whole self to it? Are we truly devoted to the fellowship, to the others in the body of Christ, or do we just say hi to them in church? Are we filled with awe? Or do we just make church and God a part, a portion, a Sunday activity of our life? What does being filled with awe look like? The original word translated awe carries a meaning of to be put in fear. The power of God was on display through the apostles with wonders and signs. Who would not be in awe, in fear? If we saw awesome acts of God being displayed through people we certainly would be in awe, in fear of God. But it would seem we sing about being a friend of God, he calls us friend. How can we be in awe or fear of a friend? Maybe there are no wonders and signs to make us filled with awe. Maybe everyone else today is just like us, not really devoted to the teachings of the apostles. Maybe we need to be the ones who should be having many wonders and signs, so others can be filled with awe, with fear of the power of God. It would seem we are just going about our own lives, giving a small portion of our life to some of the teachings of the apostles rather than being devoted to those teachings. We certainly do not have the time to be devoted to the fellowship except for a couple of hours on Sunday morning. It’s no wonder they is no awe.