He presented himself alive to them after his suffering by many proofs, appearing to them during forty days and speaking about the kingdom of God.

There is a sentence in Acts that is easy to read too quickly: Jesus “presented himself alive.”

That changes everything.

The disciples had watched Jesus die. They had seen the tomb. Their hopes had collapsed with Him. And yet Luke begins Acts by saying that Jesus was alive and that He spent forty days with His disciples, teaching them about the kingdom of God.

Christian hope begins there – not with an idea, but with a living Christ. This is one of the things I appreciate about the way Luke tells the story. He does not ask us to build our hope on a feeling. He points us to what happened. Jesus came into the world. He lived among people. He died. He rose again. Then He ascended into heaven. Acts is not simply the story of what the apostles managed to accomplish after Jesus left; it is the story of what Jesus continued to do.

That distinction matters when life feels out of control. There have been times when I have found myself wondering, “What is God doing?” Perhaps like me you pray, but the situation seems unchanged. The silence can be difficult. You do what you know is right, but you cannot see where it is leading. In those moments, it is easy to measure God’s work by what is happening in front of you.

Acts gives us another way to look at things. Jesus told His disciples that they would be His witnesses “to the end of the earth” (Acts 1:8). Think about the people hearing those words. They were a small group with no political influence, no impressive organization, and no reason to believe they could reach the world. But Jesus knew what they did not yet know: He was going to work through them.

That is a good word for us.

We need not pretend that hard situations are easy. But Christian hope does not depend on our ability to see the whole picture. Jesus is not finished. He is risen, He reigns, and He continues His work. Hebrews says that He “always lives to make intercession” for those who draw near to God through Him (Hebrews 7:25). The work is not resting on us. That may be the most freeing part of this message.

So today, take the next step you know God is asking you to take; remember that you do not need to understand everything that comes after it. The disciples could not see the whole story either, but they simply trusted the risen Jesus and went. And He was still at work.

By Bobby Thomas, Bible League International staff, India