Jesus, in the moments before his Ascension, never asked his disciples to pray.
They chose to pray. The chose to fill the anxious moments with prayer. They chose to fill the empty moments with prayer. They chose to fill days spent waiting and wondering and worrying with prayer.
And as they were praying, on the day of Pentecost, the Holy Spirit spilled on them and through them and the world began to change. The church was born into a time of waiting and wondering, into a time of constant prayer.
In the first chapter of Acts, do we find a model for life in the time of pandemic?
Luke writes in Acts 1 that Jesus said to his Disciples, “Do not leave Jerusalem but wait for the gift my Father has promised which you have heard me speak about.”
Sounds a little pandemic, doesn’t it? Jesus put limitations on their travel, telling them could not return to family outside the city. They could not return to jobs, such as fishing in Galilee, outside the city. They were to wait for an undetermined time. Just wait.
And the 11 men took the day’s walk from the Mount of Olives to Jerusalem, and then climbed to the upper room. There, Luke tells us, “They all joined together, constantly in prayer, along with the women and Mary the mother of Jesus, and his brothers.”
I’m wondering if prayer played a role in the arrival of the Holy Spirit on Pentecost. Could God hear through their prayers that they were ready for the responsibility? Was God using prayer to shape their hearts and their minds and their souls and their strength? Did they grow through prayer? Were their prayers on Day 38 and 39 more mature, more resolute, than their prayers on Day 1 and Day 2?
Or, were their prayers merely a blanket that warmed them until they were touched by the flames of the Holy Spirit? Did the frequency or fervor of their prayers not matter?
I don’t know that God needs to hear my prayers as much as I need to shape them, hold them and then lift them. I feel I am growing through my prayers in the pandemic. I hope many of us are filling empty time with prayer and growing stronger, more resolute. I don’t know that we will be presented with a Pentecost when the pandemic ends, but I believe He has a plan and a purpose.
“ … wait for the gift … “