Praising God

DEVOTION

THE BOOK OF ACTS

PRAISING GOD

Acts 3:6-10

6 Then Peter said, "Silver or gold I do not have, but what I have I give you. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, walk." 7 Taking him by the right hand, he helped him up, and instantly the man's feet and ankles became strong. 8 He jumped to his feet and began to walk. Then he went with them into the temple courts, walking and jumping, and praising God. 9 When all the people saw him walking and praising God, 10 they recognized him as the same man who used to sit begging at the temple gate called Beautiful, and they were filled with wonder and amazement at what had happened to him.

NIV

Now to the rest of the first part of the story, as the best part is yet to come. Peter and John must have had some silver and Gold for they had all things in common with all the other disciples and thus no one was without some source of purchase power. But the point in this narrative is that Peter was so filled with the power of the Holy Spirit he was simply moving in the Spirit, seeing things as Jesus did. Jesus had healed people all the time for the purpose of bringing Glory to his Father, and this is exactly what happened here. This man got up and leaped and jumped and was praising God. He could have started to praise Peter, as we will see some people might have been doing. Although it was Peter who took him by the hand and helped him up after telling him to get up in the name of Jesus of Nazareth, he was praising God. It is not clear if this man knew who Peter and John were, but it was clear that he knew God had healed him. Who wouldn’t be overjoyed to be healed? He no longer was going to have to be carried to the gate to beg for money anymore, he could simply walk to the gate himself and beg. But certainly this man was not going to be begging anymore, he would start hunting for a job, to support himself, unless of course he joined the church, and simply shared in all that was in common. There is a lot of the story about this man that is left out, giving us no clue as to what happened to him after his healing, except he was praising God. He was jumping and leaping and praising God. Some of us have been healed, physically but there is little leaping and jumping, but at least there is the praising God part. But there is also some skepticism on the part of other believers, instead of praising God along side the healed, or taking the opportunity of speaking up to non-believers about the healing that took place. When one of us is healed we all should be praising God, telling everyone we know want happened. Surely we all have been healed spiritually and yet it seems some of us are not leaping for joy. There was such an openness of this man in his praising of God, of course he had just been healed in a very miraculous way. But shouldn’t we also be as open in our praising of God, especially when we gather together in a worship service, but also whenever we are awake. If it were not for the healing power of God in our lives where would we be? What kind of life would we have? Would we be like that lame man? If fact, we would be living a crippled life, perhaps not begging from others, but nevertheless we would be crippled from unconfessed and unforgiven sin. We would not be able to have a full life, as God intended us to have, but we have been healed, we have been forgiven and we are no longer crippled by sin, for Jesus took it away and we can leap and jump and praise God. What greater miracle can there be? Yet we should also be aware that God still heals our physical conditions. He can heal the lame, he can heal the blind, he can heal cancer, he can heal any disease, any infirmity, and any condition we might be subjected to.  If we forget, if we doubt, if we live with the faith he can, but wonder if he will, we may never see such miracles. We must live with the faith that the name of Jesus has the power to heal the lame, to cure the sick, to bring about praise and Glory to God.