“And when he had spoken these things, while they beheld, he was taken up; and a cloud received him out of their sight. And while they looked stedfastly toward heaven as he went up, behold, two men stood by them in white apparel; Which also said, Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven? this same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven.” (Acts 1:9-11)

I must admit, I think I would be standing there with my jaw hanging wide open thinking, “Wow!”

But the disciples had their marching orders, and so do we.

Jesus had just told the disciples to go to Jerusalem and wait for the promise of the Father. So, what does that look like? Exactly like it sounds – WAIT.

Patience is a key part of our discipleship. By the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, we have been given faith which often manifests itself in a drive to serve the Lord. This means we want to do something. But sometimes the thing we are to do is wait until we get further instructions.

We cannot just decide for ourselves what serving God looks like. We need guidance.

Thankfully, that guidance is not hidden from us. We have the Bible, and we have the gifts of wisdom in our pastors and other mature disciples in the church (Ephesians 4). However, even after we seek Biblical and godly counsel, we may still need to be patient for the Lord to make clear to us what we should do and when we should do it. In the meantime, we should do as David instructed in the Psalms:

“Trust in the LORD, and do good; so shalt thou dwell in the land, and verily thou shalt be fed.” (Psalms 37:3)

Continue to do everything good that God has instructed us all to do everyday by loving and serving others while trusting the LORD to handle the things we cannot.

This article is Blog #4 in the series “A Walk Through Acts.”