As 2025 comes to an end, I’ve been reflecting on how the Lord has shaped me this year, quietly, steadily, and sometimes in surprising ways through one book of Scripture: Acts. Early in the year, I chose to stay with Acts. I didn’t want to rush or finish it and move on. Instead, I lingered, reading it over and over. I lost track of how many times I read it, but I always felt like I was meeting something alive, something that never became dull.Each time I read Acts, I noticed things I had missed before, simple phrases, small details, and little turns in the story that I had skimmed over earlier. Acts seems to reveal itself slowly, as if the Lord lets you see more when you take the time to listen. This year in Acts reminded me that when we give ourselves to Scripture, we find new layers of truth and remember that God’s Word is endless because God Himself is.
Walking With the Early Church
Acts is a story of the movement of the gospel from Jerusalem to Judea and Samaria, and finally to the ends of the earth. Luke is not simply recording dates or preserving names for a historical archive. He is helping us witness something astonishing: the risen Christ continuing His work through His church. Reading about Peter’s boldness, Paul’s relentless faithfulness, Stephen’s Spirit-filled courage, and the ordinary believers God used along the way has been profoundly humbling. These were not superheroes of the faith. They were real men and women who trusted a real Savior and depended upon a real Spirit.And woven through the narrative are speeches, Peter’s sermons, Stephen’s defense, and Paul’s testimonies that do far more than fill space. They are theological anchors inside the story. They teach, they interpret, and they help us understand why the events around them matter. They are evangelistic, yes; they are doctrinal, certainly; but they aren’t designed to stand alone like detached theological essays. They belong to the story, helping us see God’s purposes in what is unfolding.
A Story With Purpose
One challenge in Acts is that Luke never gives us a neat thesis statement. The book doesn’t read like an epistle with a clearly articulated argument. Instead, we feel our way into its purpose through repeated themes and patterns. Clearly, Acts is more than inspiring history. It is pastoral, instructional, missional, and profoundly theological. It shows us what it means for Jesus to truly be Lord, not only in the church gathered in Jerusalem, but in hostile synagogues, pagan cities, courtrooms, prisons, homes, and ultimately even Rome.The way Luke structures Acts is important. The story moves outward in widening circles, shifting from Peter to Paul and from a mostly Jewish setting to a more Gentile one. Some events are mentioned briefly, while others, like the Jerusalem Council or Paul’s trials, are described in detail. Luke slows us down at these points so we pay attention. He is shaping how we see the church’s mission, unity, conflict, doctrine, suffering, and perseverance.Acts reminds us that this story happened in real history. These are not myths or legends. The apostles gave authentic sermons to real people in a world that often resisted them. Because it was real for them, it speaks to us in our real world, too.
What All of This Stirred in Me
Spending a year with Acts has made me wrestle with questions like these:Do I believe the Holy Spirit is still this active, this powerful, this committed to the glory of Christ?Do I see the church as central to God’s plan, or as merely optional to my spiritual comfort?Do I understand mission as something driven by God’s sovereign hand rather than by human strategy?Do I trust that the gospel really is the hope for both religious people and irreligious people, for the morally upright and the openly rebellious?Acts doesn’t let you stay on the sidelines. It invites you to ask, “Where do I fit in this ongoing story of the risen Christ working through His people?”
Looking Ahead
As this year ends, I feel grateful. It’s not because I have all the answers or because every theme in Acts is clear. It’s because the Lord used this book to stretch my faith, deepen my love for His church, and remind me that His kingdom is moving forward even when all we see is weakness and struggle.I’m not sure yet where I’ll focus in Scripture for 2026. Maybe Romans, maybe the letters of John, or maybe somewhere else. But this year in Acts has taught me something valuable: when we slow down, linger, and let Scripture shape us as much as we study it, God meets us there.
And that is grace.