One of the biggest problems before the Christian faith today is that all Christians claim they believe in God, but not all of them live according to their own claims. In other words, many of us daily call ourselves Christians, but far too many of us don’t live like Christians.

Let’s look at the relationship between a child and his or her parents as an analogue of ours with God. When a child truly trusts his or her parents, he or she waits patiently and faith till their promises come true. When mummy and daddy promise their son a new bicycle he doesn’t immediately run out, seeking for ways to buy it himself earlier than it’s promised to him. Where there is trust in a relationship between two sides, there is also patience and faith.

Between many believers and God, however, the trust is little… so, naturally, many Christians quickly run out of patience and lose faith. God, on the other hand, doesn’t cease caring for us, but how is it possible to feel Him caring if all the time we’re trying to solve our problems on our own and pay more attention to them than we do to God?

“Humble yourselves, therefore, under God’s mighty hand, that he may lift you up in due time. Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you” (1 Peter 5:6-7, NIV).

Apostle Peter encourages us to humble ourselves before God. In other words – to confess that without Him there is nowhere we can get to; without Him there’s no feature for us; without Him our lives will be an endless fight against yet bigger problems. It’s about time for us to realized that we are the weak and God is the strong one. Doing this doesn’t mean that all of a sudden our lives will be flawless and problems will be nowhere to be seen. If we are humble before God, however, the problems will not dominate our lives but daily we will be above them, with our focus turned to what is of true matter – God.

When we start trusting God as much as we claim that we believe in Him, then we will begin to feel his care in a different, for some of us even unknown way. If we really have trust and faith in God, then as a problem comes before us we will first turn to God with a prayer for help. We will wait on His answer patiently and full of faith. And because God Himself has promised us – the answer will come, undoubtedly.

If, on the other hand, we chose to first go and try fix everything ourselves, with our own strength… or even worse – with money, then we better get ready for catastrophic consequences. Not only materially, but also spiritually. Although God will not cease caring for us and loving us, should we continue living our lives in such a way, we will one day wake up with more faith in ourselves than in God. And this is the day God will become unnecessary. We can easily lose our faith, the people around us, but worse of all – our future.

Our life with God requires daily care and a continual communication with Him. Two or three quickly put together prayers just won’t cut it. We ought to first establish our trust in Him. When this trust is real, then it won’t be hard for you to turn to God even for the smallest of things in life. It will be a joy to tell Him even of the biggest issues and troubles in your life. So, cast your cares on Him because He cares for you. Then you will have even more time to spend growing in your faith and relationship with God.

The apostles have recently been instructed by Jesus “Do not leave Jerusalem, but wait for the gift my Father promised, which you have heard me speak about. For John baptized with water, but in a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit” (Acts 1:4,5, NIV). And now they have just seen him ascend into the heavens from where He is to return in all glory.

Today, this promise of God in such circumstances would often lead to division rather than Pentecost. In most cases when the leader of a church leaves for one reason or another, the congregation immediately divides into different camps instead of praying with one accord. And yet, such a prayer is by far not the only lesson one ought to learn from this passage.

Before starting to pray, the apostles and the rest of the people with them carefully follow Jesus’ instructions – they simply wait. Lately, however, waiting has been losing its value as a virtue. Most of us own or wish to own a microwave oven, a fast computer, speedy Internet access, fast response to their e-mails… and a fast reaction by others in each and every situation. And all this just because we can’t wait. Sadly, the wasted money and nerves aren’t the only negative consequence of this. The worst is that by learning to require faster speed and shorter waiting time of everything and everyone, we also slowly begin to unlearn how to wait on God’s promise and His answers to our prayers. Sometimes God’s reply comes faster than expected and we’re jumping for joy and singing praises. Yet, other times God’s answers don’t come in accordance with our expectations… Thus, as opposed to microwave ovens and fast Internet prayer does require patience. Those of us who have the patience to wait also do receive God’s answer. Unfortunately, there are also those of us who can’t wait and instead try to fill up their emptiness with whatever little things they can do or provide on their own. Brothers and sisters, let us learn to pray with patience!

Jesus’ disciples did not only pray with patience but also prayed with one accord and constantly. Just as with patience, these two qualities also seem to be not so popular in today’s culture and society. This is the very reason we ought to pay even more attention to them. Today it is fashionable for a person to strive for achieving their individual desires and the less endurance it requires, the better. The proper functioning of Christ’s body – the body of believers cannot be a reality without endurance and harmony. The word endurance itself hasn’t lost all its value yet and this should be to our encouragement. As for harmony – the situation there is very different. In some countries as a result of the still bleeding wounds of communism, and in others – because of a long strive for individualism simply mentioning the word harmony in the context of people living together creates fears and worries. The harmony and oneness mentioned in Acts, however, shouldn’t create fears and worries after one has understood its meaning.

The Greek word ὁμοθυμαδόν (translated “together” in NIV) means “in one mind”, thus expressing what the apostles and the others praying with them had amongst each other. Among all these people there isn’t separation or divisions, there are no personal interests taking over the communal desire for God’s promise… There is no hatred, nor is there mutual or one-sided neglect. All these men and women, perhaps at different ages and certainly of different backgrounds – they all have put their differences behind so that they may turn to God together. And namely such should our prayers be… as well as our lives, if we have the boldness to call ourselves Christians.

May our prayer be: “Lord, help us to wait on your answers. Give us strength to overcome our differences, so that we may bow before your as brothers and sisters in harmony, according to your grace.”