Every day someone carried him to the temple and placed him by the gate Beautiful so that he could beg from those entering the temple complex. Every day, day after day. He had been lame from birth and this was his life. [Acts 3:1-10]
One day as he saw two men approach, he did what he always did. He asked for help. Only this day would be different. “Peter, along with John, looked at him intently and said, ‘Look at us.’” [HCSB]
So, he did, expecting to get from them what everyone else had given him every other day of this life. “But Peter said, ‘I don’t have silver or gold, but what I have, I give you: in the name of Jesus Christ the Nazarene, get up and walk!’”
And just like that, this moment changed him forever. He could feel the strength arising in his feet and ankles. He jumped up, stood, and started to walk. Then he went into the temple with Peter and John, walking, and leaping, and praising God beside them.
Beloved, there are many people like this lame man around us. They may be whole in body but are broken in their souls. They go about their lives each day thinking nothing will ever change, nothing can ever change. They have looked to the world and found nothing but a mere pittance of help.
We need to be Peter and John and give them what we have. We have Christ Jesus. We have hope. We have life in Him. We can be that “one day” in their lives when everything changes forever—when they are no longer begging but walking, and leaping, and praising God.
“What I have, I give you: in the name of Jesus Christ the Nazarene, get up and walk” with God!
