Missions week devotion by Janiece Kneppe Walter
Good morning! Today our Lord is blessing us in Acts 2:47-48:
“They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer…..praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.”
Acts:2:47-48
These verses in Acts come right after Peter preached a powerful message about what he knew from Scripture and what he experienced with Jesus. His words pierced the hearts of the people and they asked what they should do. Peter tells them, “Repent! Be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ” (Acts 2: 37-38). And 3000 people did!
Our Lord tells us the harvest is plentiful, and to ask the Lord of the harvest to send out workers. Are you prepared to be a harvester? I grew up a city girl, not a farmer. But my dad and mom were farmers. They talked about how neighbors came to help bring in the corn crop in the fall. One would drive the combine, another drove the truck where the corn was dropped into by the combine.
The combine was a big harvesting machine that combined three harvesting tasks into a single operation: reaping, threshing, and winnowing. Other workers stored the harvested corn into large corn cribs or delivered it to the grain elevator in town to store and dry the corn. Each worker had a role, and all hands were needed to bring in the crop. All this past week, we have read about and pondered scriptures that call us bring in the harvest.
I am not sure how or what I need to do to be prepared to be a harvester. But these words in Acts 2: 47 give me a blueprint to follow: Devote myself to biblical teaching, read God’s Word, be in fellowship with my brothers and sisters in Christ within the Church, participate at the Communion table, pray, and praise God. In short, stay engaged with the church. Oh, and probably the most important thing…..Ask Jesus what He needs me to do, seek out opportunities to share about Jesus with my friends, family, co-workers, neighbors, and to knock on the doors of these opportunities. He promises to give me the words, to help me find those opportunities, and to open the door! He also promises to add daily those who are being saved. Hallelujah, and Amen!
Jesus loves you! Me too!