THURSDAY April 10th
Yesterday’s devotion on the theme of our Christian Walk was intended to be the final one, but overnight I awoke, and a verse of Scripture came to my mind and guess what it involved walking, here it is from
Acts 3:8
‘And leaping up, he stood and began to walk, and entered the temple with them, walking and leaping and praising God.’
I assume we are all familiar with the story, where the lame man had asked Peter and John for alms, and Peter spoke to the man saying ‘I have no silver and gold, but what I do have I give to you. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk!’ (v6)
You can imagine this man hoping for a penny or two, but instead he gets something far more useful which was an incredible miracle that gave him for the first time ever the ability to stand up and walk! In fact, it was even more than to walk, he leapt, it would have been a leap of joy. But the first thing he did with this new ability to walk was to enter the temple to praise God!
Wow, I wonder what else he could have done, I wonder what would have been the first thing we would have done if we were in the same position, he went into the temple to praise God, to give thanks.
Now, there is another verse in this narrative that refers to walking and it is in verse 9 ‘And all the people saw him walking and praising God.’
Those around him witnessed the miracle, but they also witnessed the man walking and praising God, I want to bring an application from this verse, for we were once worse than lame, we were actually dead—dead in our trespasses and sins, but Jesus came along and he reached out to us, he has made us alive again, he has restored our souls, he has made us whole, and as a result we should also be making it a priority to be making our way to the house of God, walking (or driving as it is today) and leaping (being joyful) as we enter in to praise God. But as well, do those who we are among every day see the difference that Jesus has made in our lives. Are we different to them or to we try to blend in! Do they see us as men and women who are walking and praising God, does our personal testimony shine through.