The Bunny is Gone, So What's Next? Devotion #3: Living in Faith - Monday Morning Devotion
The Easter ham is gone. The hard-boiled egg shards scatter the floor. The Easter bunny has hopped on. So what do we do now? How do we continue to live in the joy of Easter?
We follow the example of Jesus' closest followers and we live in faith.
(Need to start at the beginning? Here's Week 1.)
Over the last few years, Snickers has had a clever campaign that states, “You’re not yourself when you’re hungry.” Needless to say, the commercials have been entertaining. In Matthew 21, Jesus was hungry. He saw the fig tree and went to grab a fruit, but nothing was on it, so He said, “Let no fruit grow on you ever again” (Matthew 21:19). And the tree did something amazing: it listened and withered away. But unlike Snickers would have you believe, Jesus was being Himself—even in His hunger—because in that moment, He found the opportunity to teach an extremely valuable lesson.
Amazed, the disciples asked how it could have withered so quickly. And Jesus proceeded to teach them about the power of faith. He taught them that if they prayed in faith, according to His will (1 John 5:14), confident and without doubt, they could move mountains!
In Acts, we see these men living this lesson. The apostles were boldly preaching, performing miracles, and doing amazing things in the name of Jesus. In Acts 4, Peter and John were brought before the Sanhedrin. As they were being questioned by the chief priests and rulers—the same men who had plotted to have Jesus killed—Peter was filled with the Holy Spirit and proceeded to deliver a powerful message that left the elite of Israel stunned. They marveled at the boldness of what they believed were untrained men—of course, we know that they weren’t untrained, because they were taught by the best: Jesus!
How did Peter, the apostles, and the believers in the early church like Stephen have this boldness? From whom did these “ordinary” men receive these profound words? From Jesus, in faith, by the power of the Holy Spirit! You see, in the Gospel of Luke, Jesus predicted this very moment in the lives of His disciples. And He instructed them on what to do, saying, "When you are brought before synagogues, rulers and authorities, do not worry about how you will defend yourselves or what you will say, for the Holy Spirit will teach you at the time what you should say” (Luke 12:11–12).
Their faith allowed the Spirit to do amazing things in and through them, to bring about a revolution and revival in the hearts of Jews and Gentiles around the ancient world, to ignite a fire that spread across the land—a fire that still burns today. And just like the apostles, we too can be used by the Spirit to fulfill God’s work . . . all we need is faith in Jesus!
Please pray with us this week for that fire to spread across our land, particularly to our Native brothers and sisters.
Jesus tells US, just as he told the disciples, if we pray in faith, according to God’s will (1 John 5:14), we can move mountains! God wants to do extraordinary things through your life, and He wants everyone to know Him and be saved. He wants to use you to tell others about Him! It is not easy, but when you put your faith in Jesus He gives you the courage to do so.
READ WEEK 4
This devotion is based on Calvary Fort Lauderdale's series: "'It is finished' was just the beginning."