When life interrupts our routine, it can be a blessing or an irritation. It is all about one's perspective.
"I have to keep my hour of prayer at the temple," Peter could have said when the lame beggar came into this path. Instead, Peter stopped and said to him, "Look at me!" The beggar was hoping for a nice handout when he got, "I don't have any money but what I have I can give you. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, get up and walk!"
If you have not walked a day of your life, how would you react? Again, the biblical record focuses on the joy, the exuberance of the healed man: "walking and jumping and praising God." The crowd? Amazed!
Living in a post-elightment, post-modern world where science is the answer to every question, it is hard for us to imagine a simple prayer of faith changing our world. Many people around the world who do not have access to modern medicine, do practice this kind of faith. I would hesitate to call it a "simple faith" for faith that calls for throwing oneself on God is never "simple." It is a heart-wrenching faith that seeks out God. It is a desperate faith. One of the reasons many westerners do not experience a dynamic God is they do not share this desperation.
Make us a desperate people, God.
Ron Friesen (c) 2015
"I have to keep my hour of prayer at the temple," Peter could have said when the lame beggar came into this path. Instead, Peter stopped and said to him, "Look at me!" The beggar was hoping for a nice handout when he got, "I don't have any money but what I have I can give you. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, get up and walk!"
If you have not walked a day of your life, how would you react? Again, the biblical record focuses on the joy, the exuberance of the healed man: "walking and jumping and praising God." The crowd? Amazed!
Living in a post-elightment, post-modern world where science is the answer to every question, it is hard for us to imagine a simple prayer of faith changing our world. Many people around the world who do not have access to modern medicine, do practice this kind of faith. I would hesitate to call it a "simple faith" for faith that calls for throwing oneself on God is never "simple." It is a heart-wrenching faith that seeks out God. It is a desperate faith. One of the reasons many westerners do not experience a dynamic God is they do not share this desperation.
Make us a desperate people, God.
Ron Friesen (c) 2015
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