- Pray, lifting your requests before God and praising Him for His goodness. Be sure to ask Him to speak to your heart during your devotional time.
- Read today’s passage of Scripture in your Bible and be ready to journal.
- Record your thoughts. What stands out to you?
- How does today’s reading apply to your life? How does it reveal your insufficiencies? What change does God’s word call you to today?
- Remember to have each member of your family share what God showed them during your family worship time today.
- If you have any questions, please use the contact form on this site.
Below, you will find notes to aid you in your thoughts and prayers today.
v. 1-12
This is the type of story in Scripture I think we really love to latch onto. A lame man gains the use of his legs miraculously. The people of God seem to have the power to heal. The masses are astonished with what God’s people can do. If we were to consider this section of Scripture as a separate point of study from the next, I imagine we would develop some sort of prosperity theory or start a faith-healing ministry. We would be bamboozled into thinking that this story is about the Christian’s ability and we would be so tricked because we chose not to keep reading.
v. 11-26
As the people gathered around, being utterly astonished at what they perceived Peter to have done, Peter stated clearly that they (the Apostles) did not perform this healing by their own power or godliness. Instead, it was Christ. Peter took this opportunity to declare verbally the story of Christ and call the people to repentance. The story, then, isn’t as human-centered or faith empowering as we might want in our own sinful nature. Healings were not performed to make a person’s life more convenient or easier on this earth. Healings were not performed to bring attention to people or to raise people up. Healings were performed primarily so that the Gospel would be heard and people would be brought to repentance. This is going to greatly impact the way that we pray.
We have all, I think, asked for healing (either for ourselves or someone else) and that healing has not come. Then we ask why God refuses to answer our prayers. We don’t realize that God’s purpose for healing is not to raise people up on this earth, but instead to call people to repentance. We want God to make us comfortable, but in a sinful world He will not. For us to merely pray for healing is an idea that is entirely unbiblical, though on occasion God will grant that healing. We ought to concern ourselves, instead, with praying for repentance. If we become angry with God for not healing or for, in His providence, allowing a loved one to pass-away, we have not understood God or His word. We earned condemnation because of our sin against God; so on this earth there must be suffering because that is the consequence of sin. God is bringing people into an eternal kingdom, though, where there will be no more sin and suffering. That is why His priority in our time is repentance, not necessarily physical healing or any sort of earthly prosperity. For many, physical healing turns them away from God rather than to repentance. Peter’s objective was also the repentance of the people, and God is working all things together for the good of those who love Him and are called according to His purpose. God certainly hears our prayers and has not ignored them. His purpose, though, is much higher than ours while we are in this sinful condition. We can take great comfort in that.
There might also be something here to say about good works. When we serve others, as Peter does here, we must do so with the gospel of repentance unto salvation on our lips; else our service is brief with no everlasting impact for the good of those we serve.
Milk: Daily, Biblical Devotionals 