It Takes Faith

  

DEVOTION

THE ACTS OF THE APOSTLES

IT TAKES FAITH

Acts 3:1-10

3:1 One day Peter and John were going up to the temple at the time of prayer — at three in the afternoon. 2 Now a man crippled from birth was being carried to the temple gate called Beautiful, where he was put every day to beg from those going into the temple courts. 3 When he saw Peter and John about to enter, he asked them for money. 4 Peter looked straight at him, as did John. Then Peter said, "Look at us!" 5 So the man gave them his attention, expecting to get something from them.

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

It is difficult to pass up a man who is crippled and not look at him with some amount of compassion, but Peter not only had compassion on this man, but he also took action and did something to bring glory to the Lord. This is faith at work and not in the sense that Peter worked or did good deeds, but that simply believing that if he told this man to get up and walk in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth that the man would get up and walk. Maybe we get confused about good works by thinking that it is about doing something at church, like volunteering in some program or doing some ministry. Maybe that is the right way to express the faith that James talks about. There are good ministries that meet the needs of people, homeless shelters, food pantries, and such, that are an expression of faith. We do have to consider faith without works is dead.  Peter’s faith was not dead, for the cripple man had a need to be healed, and Peter did not have coins to give him, but he had the power of God through the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth to heal that man, to put strength in legs and ankles that have never ever been used before. This is faith at work in ways we have not seen in a while. We wonder, again, if we simply do not believe in our faith or in the power of the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth enough to tell someone they are healed. All the physical labor type of good works, the ministries, helping hands, giving things to people can be done by non-believers with the same compassion as believers, it is called humanitarianism, but having the faith to tell a cripple to get up takes faith in Jesus Christ of Nazareth that not a single unbeliever could ever do. It was said that we can only give what we have. We can give time if we have it. We can give money if we have it. We can give actually food or clothing if we have it. We can give whatever it is if we have it, but it takes faith to tell a person they are healed because then we would have faith that we can give. We say we have faith. First, are we giving that faith away to someone in need? That is are we telling them they can be healed from death by accepting Jesus as their Lord and Savior. That would be giving what we have, salvation or faith.  Second, if we have faith, then we would be using that faith to tell someone they are healed from whatever ails them and it would be done to them as it was this crippled man. In both cases would we see a person jumping and leaping and praising God. But it takes faith.