Acts 3:16
And upon the faith of his name this one – who you all watch
with the eyes and you all have known – his name made strong. And the faith – the one through him – he gave
this perfect soundness over against you all.
Thoughts for Today:
First Thought:
In spite of the greatness of the miracle, Peter continues to
focus on Jesus as the source of power.
How hard is it to continue to focus on Jesus – especially in
the face of success? Why is it so
difficult to be in the midst of success and continue to give Jesus (or more
generically, God) all the credit?
Second Thought:
Peter teaches that the healing was based upon the power of
faith through Jesus Christ. Now, please
don’t hear me saying that God cannot work if a person has no faith. But quite often, God works through the people
who have faith. Think about all the
people in the Bible that Jesus healed.
Each one of them believed that Jesus was the answer. God may be able to do anything, but enjoys
working through people who have faith in Him.
Does it make sense that God would choose to work through people
with faith? Why or why not?
Third Thought:
Peter is clear that our faith comes through Jesus
Christ. In other books of the Bible, the
authors of those books also make the same claim. It is important to see our faith as not
something we make, but something God gives to us. After all, if our faith is something we make
on our own, then we are in danger of teaching salvation by works: my faith
becomes my work and I think I am great enough to be saved. Instead, what we should think is that it is
God who gives us faith and we merely respond to the faith that God gives us
much like Peter, John, and the beggar have done. This way we do not think that we are saved
through any of our work, but rather that God has saved us and what we do is a
response to the salvation God has already promised.
Can you tell the difference between someone who thinks they
need to do good works in order to be saved and someone who does good works
because they are saved? What might some
of those differences be?
Passage for Tomorrow: Acts 3:17-21
2 comments:
It makes sense that God would work more so through people of faith because it wouldn't really make sense to work through people who don't trust you.
Certainly. But that's the really cool part. God does work through people who don't believe in Him all the time. But when He works through people who do trust Him is is usually far more effective!
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