City Life Starter

Written by Aisha Darwesh

The Word

⁴⁶ And day by day, attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes, they received their food with glad and generous hearts, ⁴⁷ praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved. –Acts 2:46-47 ESV

Aisha’s Analysis

In the above verses from today’s portion of scripture, we see two instances of “day-by-day” happenings of the newborn church: 1) the believers were attending the temple together, breaking bread in their homes, and praising God; and, 2) the Lord adding to their number those who were being saved. 

This is such a beautiful picture of how our daily choices can impact the world around us and stir God’s Spirit to take action also. It also shows us that the great display of God’s Spirit entering the scene with wind and fire had a lasting impact that completely transformed the lives of those who received the good news of the Gospel. It’s not as though they had that powerful mountaintop experience and went back to business as usual. 

Quite the contrary, the Holy Spirit influenced their hearts, and this impacted their mindset and daily choices. Peter’s fiery, Spirit-inspired sermon at Pentecost resulted in their daily devoting themselves to the teaching, worship, and fellowship with other believers. As a result, the Lord added to their number day-by-day. 

Staying consistent and connected with God and other believers results in massive growth, and it doesn’t necessarily happen overnight as it did earlier in this chapter: 

“So those who received his word were baptized, and there added that day about three thousand souls” –Acts 2:41 ESV. 

Receiving God’s Word is not a one and done event in our lives as believers. It’s a daily choice to follow Christ as we sojourn the wilderness and encounter copious catacombs of contradictory data to God’s Word. We must choose to lay down the old and and embrace our new life in Christ every day: 

“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.” –2 Corinthians 5:17 ESV

Application

In our daily lives, there will be many temptations to fall out of step with God’s Spirit, and it’s not always obvious. Staying angry with a spouse, coworker, or friend, slandering someone with your words, harboring bitterness in your heart–these are all things that can easily arise in our lives through various situations, yet they all grieve the Holy Spirit (See Ephesians 4:29-32). 

In those moments when it’s so easy to slip into old patterns of sin and selfishness, actively choose to follow Christ. Invite Him into that unfair situation and ask Him what He thinks about the person who hurt you. As you tune in to God’s great love for you, it’ll be a lot easier to stay in step with the Holy Spirit, extend his kindness and mercy to others, and to follow Him day-by-day. 

In today’s hyper-independent, isolated world of disjointedness, I challenge you to stay connected to God and to other believers. Keep going to church and small group and stay in fellowship with other believers. Don’t stop worshiping God because you are too busy or distracted or going through a difficult season. Keep making that daily choice to follow God and keep showing up for the people He has placed in your life. 

Prayer

Dear God, I admit it’s easy to slack off and to choose entertainment instead of engagement. Help me to develop a daily discipline of staying connected to You and to other believers. I’m not sure what that looks like, but I trust You to show me the way. In Jesus’ name, amen.