[Wednesday's Devotional] - It's all about Jesus!

And leaping up he stood and began to walk, and entered the temple with them, walking and leaping and praising God.   And all the people saw him walking and praising God…

“Men of Israel, why do you wonder at this, or why do you stare at us, as though by our own power or piety we have made him walk?”

Acts 3:8-9 &13 [ESV]

I don’t know about you, but if I had just ministered God’s healing power like Peter did, I would be rather ‘pumped up’.  All my feelings of inadequacy and any questions about the closeness of my walk with Jesus, or the quality of my ministry would vanish (for a while anyway).  I would be the ‘Daddy’!.  I would be insufferable at home (even more so than usual) and would really feel that I had arrived.  It is easy to see, perhaps, why people with high-powered public ministries sometimes fall into temptation.

However, there is no self-congratulation in Peter’s response to the healing at all.  That may have been the case with the Pre-Pentecost Peter, but not now.  Peter has healed this man in the name of Jesus and now is going to preach Jesus to anyone who will listen.  God is to be glorified by this healing, not Peter, not John and not the, now, ex-lame man.  The man shows his joy as he walks and leaps: leaping for the shear-joy of being able to leap and for the same reason as a young horse leaps, I guess.  He leaps and praises God and this is not a dignified thing for a man in his forties to do!  This display is an advert that attracts the attention of everyone around.  Peter uses it to address the crowd that has gathered and tell them about Jesus.  The man’s healing is all about the glory of God and those who witness the scene need to be told what is happening.

So today, how are you going to give Jesus the glory?  What opportunities will you seek to glorify God?  Jesus will not be our only topic of conversation, of course, but we want to share the difference he has made in our lives, don’t we?  You may not get the same crowd that Peter got, but the people in your life, like the crowd, need to know what all the fuss is about.

John Martin-Jones