"Walk"

Did you know that Peter once healed a man in the bible who was lame? He didn't make the man cool because he wasn't, he healed a man who was unable to walk. How cool is that? A human performed a miracle. I hope that you never think that you cannot do anything significant because you can.

Acts 3:6-10: Then Peter said, "Silver and gold I do not have but what I do have I give to you. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, walk." Taking him by the right hand, he helped him up, and instantly the man's feet and ankles became strong. He jumped to his feet and began to walk. Then he went with them into the temple courts, walking and jumping, and praising God. When all the people saw him walking and praising God, 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.

So where am I going with this? There are so many instances in life where we want to be able to give someone something to help them out. Most of the time, we don't have the material goods to give them. We do have one thing though and that one thing is never changing. We have the gift of the Holy Spirit inside of us, the gift of God. Peter told the man that he didn't have anything to give him, but he was going to give him what he had and that was Jesus Christ. Peter was bold and courageous and the man was healed because of Jesus Christ. We can do the same thing to people every day. Share  Jesus with someone and their life can change.

I especially like the end of the verse. "Taking him by the right hand, he helped him up, and instantly the man's feet and ankles became strong. He jumped to his feet and began to to walk. Then he went with them into the temple courts, walking and jumping, and praising God. When all the people saw him walking and praising God, they recognized him as the same man who used to sit begging at the temple gate and they were filled with wonder and amazement. How perfect of an illustration? We share Jesus with someone, we take that person up with us, walk with them, encourage them, love them, pray for them, and instantly their life is changed. That person now begins to walk on a new and exciting journey, walking and jumping, and praising God. People will notice a change and recognize that there is something different about that person.

Share Jesus, love someone, change their life forever.

How should our walk be? I think it should be courageous.

Acts 4:13: When they saw the courage of Peter and John and realized that they were unschooled, ordinary men, they were astonished and they took note that these men had been with Jesus.

I want to encourage you and challenge you with that verse. The people noticed that Peter and John had courage, they could notice that when they were teaching. They could tell that they were unschooled and ordinary men, because of that the people were astonished and took note that they had been with Jesus. Seriously though, think about it, when you are witnessing someone speak or teach about certain topics do you want that person to be super educated and ordinary? In a way yes, because you want it to be educational. But when you look at the impact, you will be impacted by someone who had courage. I hope you could understand the point I was just trying to make, it was really tough for me to word it. What I am trying to say is that you can tell a difference between someone who lives a life of courage vs. someone who lives based on being ordinary. As followers of Jesus Christ we are extra-ordinary!

I challenge you and encourage you to share your faith, it will change someones life. The courage you live your life with will be noticed and people will be astonished by it. It may not seem like it all the time, but a life lived with courage is truly astonishing.

~ you are loved ~