SCRIPTURE: Acts 3
OBSERVATION/APPLICATION:
Repent, then, and turn to God, so that your sins may be wiped out, that times of refreshing may come from the Lord [Acts 3:19] As long as we remain closed to God, we will experience misery. The suffering in this world, including this man’s being crippled, is the consequence of our having turned away from God. If we walk away from the fire, we will lose the benefit of its light and warmth, and we will wander in darkness. But if we turn back…
To repent is to change one’s direction, to make a u-turn. Every step we take away from God increases our guilt and our misery; every step we take towards God increases our refreshing.
God has entered this dark world through Jesus, and has opened the way for us to turn to God. God demonstrated the refreshing possible through Jesus with the miracles that He and His followers performed. The miracles were signs pointing to the refreshing available to all who turn back to God.
By accepting Jesus as God’s messiah, by surrendering our lives to Him as our Lord and Saviour, we enter into the eternal kind of life. Our guilt is wiped away and we are transformed by the Spirit of Jesus into world-changing agents of the kingdom of God. Not with silver, not with gold, but in the name of Jesus we demonstrate in word and deed the eternal kind of life, the refreshing kind of life. We are both refreshed, and refreshing. We are blessed, and we are a blessing.
The key is surrender to Jesus. Not just making a faith declaration, but living a life that reflects that confidence. Jesus is Lord, I am forgiven and free, I have His Spirit at work in me. I am refreshed, and I can refresh others. Like Peter and John, I can offer what I have – the power of confidence in Jesus’ name. With my words and my actions, empowered by the Spirit of King Jesus, I can help and heal and refresh others. This is the life!
Again and again I must turn around (repent), admit where I am straying, and take firm and decisive steps towards God, towards living for Jesus. If I spend time alone with Jesus, He makes it clear to me where I am straying. His Spirit is convicting me as I type. Will I repent? Will I act? My response will determine whether I am refreshed, and others refreshed through me.
PRAYER:
Lord, what am I waiting for? I want to be refreshed, and I want to refresh others. I want to bring the kind of joy this crippled man experienced.
Can you imagine this Peter … I don’t think the lame man knew what was coming!
“Peter … fixes his gaze on him”
“Look at us!” he says to the lame man
“seizing him by the right hand, he raised him up”
Go get him Peter!
God uses all our personalities to draw peoples attention to their need.