In this story, Peter has just had
the Holy Spirit fall on him, what’s called the day of Pentecost. And he’s
just addressed a big crowd, telling them all about Jesus. He finishes up,
as you heard, by saying, “Therefore, let all Israel be assured of this:
God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Messiah.”
And the people believe him.
They accept that Jesus is the Savior, that he’s the Lord and Messiah.
But then they ask this question of Peter and the other apostles.
They ask, “Brothers, what shall we do?”
And that’s what our question should
always be, too. You know, we talk about how we are saved through our
faith in Jesus Christ as our Savior and by nothing else, and that’s true.
I believe that. But at the same time, our faith is not just a
private thing. It’s not something that we’re supposed to keep to
ourselves. If we truly accept Jesus as our Savior, if we truly have faith,
then we’re supposed to do something about that faith. And so the question
we should always ask is, “Now that I believe, what shall I do?”
It’s not always an easy question to
answer. You know, there have been some really sad things happen in this
area over the last couple of weeks. Lots of people have lost people close
to them, sometimes in a very sudden and tragic way. And we wish we could
help. But then we think, “But what shall I do?” And we have a hard
time coming up with an answer. It seems like there’s really nothing we
can do.
And that’s got to be especially true
for those of you in here. I mean, I’m not telling you anything you don’t
know when I say that the reality is that you’re limited in what you can do
anyway. And then something like this happens, and you must feel even more
helpless and frustrated than I do. You see people you care about hurting,
and you want to help, but “what shall I do?” We have a hard time coming
up with an answer.
And I do, too. But I can think
of a few things you can do. They’re not everything, but they’re a start.
At least they’re something.
One is that you can pray. And
I know a lot of you do, and have been. But keep praying. Pray for
all those who’ve lost loved ones. Pray for God to give them comfort and
strength and love. Pray that they will feel God with them, so that they
know they’re not going through this alone. Pray, and keep praying.
Their hurt is not going to go away in a day or a week or a month.
Our prayers should not go away in that time, either.
Reach out to people. Send a
card. Make a phone call. Let people know that you’re praying for
them. It means something to all of us to know that someone is praying for
us. It gives us strength. It gives us comfort. It lets us
know that we’re not alone. Sometimes, that knowledge means more than
anything else.
And let them know that you’re there
for them if they want to talk. If they want to talk on the phone, or if
they want to come out and talk in person, let them know they can talk to you.
Knowing we have someone we can talk to when we need to is a tremendous
comfort when we’re hurting. Even if they never actually do talk to you,
just the knowledge that they can sometimes means a tremendous amount to people.
And don’t just do it right now.
Do it a again a few weeks from now. Do it again a month from now.
Do it again six weeks from now. Again, when people are hurting,
that hurt does not go away quickly. Sometimes we’re afraid to bring
something up a few weeks later because we’re afraid we’ll make things worse.
We’re afraid we’ll just remind them of their sadness. But in fact,
they’re thinking about it anyway. Again, when someone is hurting, that
hurt does not go away in a day or a week or a month. They’re not going to
forget. And sometimes, just knowing that others have not forgotten either
is a very comforting thing.
I’m sure there are other things you
can do. And in other situations, what we do will be completely different.
The point is that, no matter what the situation is, we need to do
something, and there is always something we can do. But to do it, we have
to start with the question asked by the people Peter was talking to. We
have to ask, “What shall we do?”
And if we’re stuck for something,
then we need to ask God what to do. And we need to keep asking and keep
asking until God gives us an answer. And God will give us an answer.
God loves it when we ask God for chances to serve God. In my
experience, every time I’ve asked God for a way to serve God, I have gotten an
answer. I think you will, too.
It’s important that we have faith in
Jesus as our Savior. But if we truly have faith, we will ask the
question. “What shall we do?” And if we truly believe and want to
serve God, God will give us an answer.
No comments:
Post a Comment