“Lord Jesus, we commit ourselves in Your hands. Cause our lives to be markedly different from the ethos of our world. May we draw people to You through the transformed lives that we live. We give You the glory. In Your name, we pray. Amen.”
The lame man was healed and he was walking, leaping, and praising God.
Acts 3:9-10 And all the people saw him walking and praising God. (10) Then they knew that it was he who sat begging alms at the Beautiful Gate of the temple; and they were filled with wonder and amazement at what had happened to him.
The Lord was causing people to pay attention to what was taking place in this man’s life. This was an unusual and strange experience. Here was this man, who was once lame, but was now walking, leaping, and praising God.
The Lord causes our lives to be such that others will pay attention to us and be challenged. Matthew 5:16 Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven.
Just as this man was now the focus of everyone’s attention, it is our light that must shine out and cause others to see the difference. There must be a change in us. Something drastic should be happening in us that we are no more how we were earlier but are now experiencing God’s healing. This light, this difference, that comes from us, causes a stir in the hearts and minds of people, for our ways will be the ways of God set in the context of darkness.
Philippians 2:15 that you may become blameless and harmless, children of God without fault in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world,
We need these lights in every situation. These are not only individuals as lights, attracting the attention of people, but we are cities, set on a hill. Matthew 5:14 “You are the light of the world. A city that is set on a hill cannot be hidden. We are a community of God’s people, whose ways are contrary to the ways of the world.
As a community, we are a testimony to God and we set the standard of God in all that we do. The light that is shining from us is not our light but it is the light of Jesus that is shining in us and through us.
II Corinthians 4:6-7 For it is the God who commanded light to shine out of darkness, who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. (7) But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellence of the power may be of God and not of us.
The healing that was manifested through this man was not his doing, but it was the power of God that was being made known in him.
Just as this man, each of us, and we as His church, must deliberately arise and shine for Jesus. Isaiah 60:1 Arise, shine; For your light has come! And the glory of the LORD is risen upon you.
We are lamps that are lit and placed on a lampstand so that others will be blessed by our lives. Matthew 5:15 Nor do they light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a lampstand, and it gives light to all who are in the house. We are to be lights that impact and bring change to our context.
God was now beginning to use this man’s life as a means by which others would be drawn to Him. This is His desire that each of us and we as His church would draw others to Him by being the salt and light of the world. God longs for man to be reconciled with Him and come into His habitat.
II Thessalonians 1:11-12 Therefore we also pray always for you that our God would count you worthy of this calling, and fulfill all the good pleasure of His goodness and the work of faith with power, (12) that the name of our Lord Jesus Christ may be glorified in you, and you in Him, according to the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ.
We are here in this world to proclaim the praises of Him who has called us from darkness into His marvellous light. I Peter 2:9-10 But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people, that you may proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light; (10) who once were not a people but are now the people of God, who had not obtained mercy but now have obtained mercy.
People must know the marked difference that has happened in our lives and that difference is Jesus. As this man leapt and praised the Lord, people were seeing the glory of God manifested in this man.
We as His church must be conscious that the Lord is causing our lives to stir people around us so that they will notice the mighty and unusual work of God and be drawn to Him.