Day 45: Sometimes You Never Know Your Impact (Acts 19:1-10)
Today’s Passage: Acts 19:1-10
Every now and then I bump into someone from my past and they will say, “I always remember when you said…”.
In these encounters there is always a moment, a brief moment of time, before they remind me what I said. In that nanosecond I usually think, “Oh my, what on earth might I have said? I pray it was good!”
Seriously, as we travel through our lives, in the varied interactions we have with varied people, we sometimes will never know our impact.
Consider John the Baptist. As we read this chapter of Acts of the Apostles, the most conservative Bible Scholars put the writing of these events around 52-55 AD. In Acts 18:12 the citing of Gallio as proconsul of Achaia, really pinpoints the date.
Now consider, this is 20 years- 2 decades, after John the Baptist was alive—and we find his followers in Ephesus.
Sometimes we never know the impact we have on people, truly.
I wonder if that point was not lost on Paul. Here he is, once again in a place where he goes to the synagogue. He of course has some early success, but over time those who disagree dig in their heels, and in the end, he leaves and goes to the Gentiles.
Yet, look at the text. It says, “So allthe residents of Asia heard the Word of the Lord, both Jews and Greeks”, WOW!
I can picture days, weeks, months, and even years after Paul left Ephesus. The Word of the Lord continued to spread. We never know the impact we have on people.
Today, in our “drive through, have it my way, NOW world” I’ve been conditioned for instant results. When I don’t get them, I can become disillusioned.
Yet this is not how God designed His world, or us. Relationships, while quickly born, deepen only with time. To speak with someone about God is to engage in the deepest and most important topic ever…and it takes time and patience and prayer.