Acts 3:11-16 – While the man held on to Peter and John, all the people were astonished and came running to them in the place called Solomon’s Colonnade. 12 When Peter saw this, he said to them: “Fellow Israelites, why does this surprise you? Why do you stare at us as if by our own power or godliness we had made this man walk? 13 The God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, the God of our fathers, has glorified His servant Jesus. You handed Him over to be killed, and you disowned Him before Pilate, though he had decided to let Him go. 14 You disowned the Holy and Righteous One and asked that a murderer be released to you. 15 You killed the Author of life, but God raised Him from the dead. We are witnesses of this. 16 By faith in the name of Jesus, this man whom you see and know was made strong. It is Jesus’ name and the faith that comes through Him that has completely healed him, as you can all see.
“By faith in the name of Jesus, this man whom you see and know was made strong. It is Jesus’ name and the faith that comes through Him that has completely healed him, as you can all see.” Praise God always! Praise Him every day and every part of it! Praise God! Likely, many times we have all read this account of the healed man and what Peter said afterward to point to, and to glorify, Jesus. Does this story still excite us? Does it give us pause to pray and seek God that these same things may happen today? Are we excited? Really excited? Or do we read these stories of the miraculous while hardly concentrating on what we read, perhaps even bored by them? Are we reading the Bible to have done a duty or are we reading because we love God, and therefore also the Word of God? Then it should thrill us! If at any time we are reading the Word and it is not thrilling us then we should stop reading, get on our knees and seek God. The written Word is meant to reveal who God is and to guide us in our life. It is what God uses to draw us to Him. Stop, think about this, are we excited about belonging to God and being the hands and heart of Jesus to a lost world? If the Lord Jesus were to, in a private moment, suddenly appear before us, would that excite us or would we casually observe Him and listen perfunctorily Him? No, we would be overwhelmed as were the Prophets and Apostles of old. We would not want the moment to end. We would tell everyone that would listen what Jesus had said to us. It would be something we would never forget and always treasure. Family that is how we should react to the Word of God. If we are preoccupied when reading the Word, if we find our minds and hearts disinterested, we ought to stop, clear our minds and be ready to receive from God. Reading the Word of God is an act of worship.
A man, lame for all of his over forty years, was healed! His life was changed! God used Peter and John to touch that man. What that man had cried to God about for over forty years had just been given to him. God not only used Peter and John to do His will, but He blessed and used that formerly lame man to bless everyone there, and even us. God had a plan for that man’s life. God had not forgotten Him as He may have sometimes assumed. God had a time and a date to change the man’s life in a way that shocked him and made him jump and shout in joy. Just as God has a plan for the life of every one of us. Family, that is exciting every single time.
Peter was clear and strong in saying that it was Jesus who healed the man. He made it clear to all present that though they may see men standing before them, who really healed the man was Jesus, who now lived and worked by the Holy Spirit within the disciples. Jesus healed the man. Jesus has done the greatest miracle of all for us. He has saved all who will come to Him. He moved us from a path to hell to become His brothers and sisters and now on a path to Heaven. Every morning we should be bursting from the gates to shout to everyone “I’m healed! I’m saved! Jesus is the one who healed and saved me!” We should be excited to share our testimonies of what Jesus has done, and is doing for us.
When we read the Word, we should be expecting the Holy Spirit to instruct and guide. We should expect it every time. As the Lord brings the Word alive life is poured into us and that life should fill and overflow out of us, every single time. Every time we read the Word of God we should be changed and drawn closer to Him. Family, us understanding the Word of God is no less a miracle than the lame man being healed because both are to the glory of Jesus and by the same Holy Spirit. Let us read with the intent to receive. Let us share what God gives us, just at the lame man did. That’s how Jesus conquers the world through us, over and over again, one miraculous moment at a time. Praise God that He uses us! Praise God! Always praise God!
Psalm 150:6 – Let everything that has breath praise the Lord. Praise the Lord!
Micah 7:7 – But as for me, I watch in hope for the Lord, I wait for God my Savior; my God will hear me.
Micah 6:8 – He has shown You, O man, what is good; And what does the Lord require of You but to do justly, to love mercy, And to walk humbly with Your God.