Devotion: What Are You Devoted To?

What are you devoted to?

One of the greatest verses regarding Great Commission Discipleship has got to be Acts 2:42, which says of the early Christians, “They were continually devoting themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer.”  In just this one verse we learn what essentially is the radical lifestyle of a genuine disciple of Jesus Christ and the ministry of a God-fearing church.

Passionate disciples are people who regularly devote themselves “to the apostles’ teaching” (the Bible), to “fellowship” with other like-minded believers, to the celebration of communion in “the breaking of bread,” and to “prayer.”  But don’t overlook what else that verse says.  The Holy Spirit makes a point to tell us those early Christians were “continually devoting themselves” to these activities.

Did you catch that?

You see, no one had to motivate the early church toward worship, discipleship, or godliness.  They were “devoting themselves” to these spiritual activities and were “continually” doing so.  They were passionate about their walk with God, their communion with Christ, and their devotion to one another.  The early church’s discipleship program was one of thorough regularity and radical devotion to their God and one another.  Their Christianity was not just a Sunday morning gig.  “Day by day continuing with one mind in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, they were taking their meals together with gladness and sincerity of heart, praising God and having favor with all the people” (Acts 2:46-47).

Do you ever wonder sometimes if today’s church just doesn’t get it?  Like we’re missing something utterly important?  Let me ask you a hard question.  Have you been “continually devoting” yourself to the passionate worship of the Triune God, or has something else been hoarding your time and attention?

To what exactly have you been devoting yourself lately?

Genuine disciples of Jesus Christ are useful to God, yielding a fruitful “crop, some a hundredfold, some sixty, and some thirty” (Matthew 13:8).  “An average ratio for harvested grain to what was sown was 8 to 1, with a 10 to 1 ratio considered exceptional” (MacArthur Study Bible).  And so when Jesus taught that even the less fruitful Christians would still yield a thirtyfold crop, it simply blew their minds away.  Radical faith always results in far more spiritual fruit than you would have ever thought possible.

Regardless as to your own individual maturity and obedience in Christ, you are a prosperous, fruit-bearing disciple.  No doubt about it.  A tree, Jesus said, “is known by its fruit” (Matthew 12:33), and passionate disciples of Christ are producing bumper crops of fruitfulness for the glory of God alone.  Jesus said, “Let your light shine before men in such a way that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father in heaven” (Matthew 5:16).  The apostle Paul said, “we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them” (Ephesians 2:10).  And regarding the expected lifestyle for all believers in the church, Paul told Timothy, “Instruct them to do good, to be rich in good works, to be generous and ready to share, storing up for themselves the treasure of a good foundation for the future, so that they may take hold of that which is life indeed” (1 Timothy 6:18-19).

You see, although unsaved churchgoers produce a dead and fruitless faith, passionate disciples blow the roof off silos!