Devotion:
Read Acts 8:1-3.
Being a science major in college, I studied many cycles of the flow of water and nutrients in plants, and trees. In the winter, deciduous trees and perennial plants appear to be dead. You can see no life in them from the outside. You would assume they have nothing going on, but really there is much activity. That is the way God sometimes works in us. In our troubled times we can’t always see God involved in our situation, but He is always there trying to make something positive come from the hard time or that bleak situation.
In this scripture, it is a troubled time for the early Christians. Saul is persecuting Christians in a harsh way and the believers were fleeing so it appeared that Christianity might be stamped out or made dormant. God does two things with this rage of Saul's: He forces the church out of Jerusalem into Judea and Samaria to share the Good News as He had planned, and He makes the early church depend not upon the apostles but upon the Spirit distributed to everyone. These were ordinary, plain Christians like you and me. They began to develop the gifts of evangelism, of witnessing, of help, wisdom, knowledge, teaching, and all of the gifts. They spread the Gospel even when they were unsure of the consequences.
Personal Worship Option:
Dear God, help us see you in the “winters” of our lives. Guide us through the troubles making us rely on our faith. Amen
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