WHAT’S IN A MIRACLE?
Opening Prayer
Father, it is good to bless Your name; to remember Your mercies each morning and Your lovingkindness at night.
Read ACTS 9:32–43
32 As Peter traveled about the country, he went to visit the Lord’s people who lived in Lydda. 33 There he found a man named Aeneas, who was paralyzed and had been bedridden for eight years. 34 “Aeneas,” Peter said to him, “Jesus Christ heals you. Get up and roll up your mat.” Immediately Aeneas got up. 35 All those who lived in Lydda and Sharon saw him and turned to the Lord.
36 In Joppa there was a disciple named Tabitha (in Greek her name is Dorcas); she was always doing good and helping the poor. 37 About that time she became sick and died, and her body was washed and placed in an upstairs room. 38 Lydda was near Joppa; so when the disciples heard that Peter was in Lydda, they sent two men to him and urged him, “Please come at once!”
39 Peter went with them, and when he arrived he was taken upstairs to the room. All the widows stood around him, crying and showing him the robes and other clothing that Dorcas had made while she was still with them.
40 Peter sent them all out of the room; then he got down on his knees and prayed. Turning toward the dead woman, he said, “Tabitha, get up.” She opened her eyes, and seeing Peter she sat up. 41 He took her by the hand and helped her to her feet. Then he called for the believers, especially the widows, and presented her to them alive. 42 This became known all over Joppa, and many people believed in the Lord. 43 Peter stayed in Joppa for some time with a tanner named Simon.
New International Version (NIV)
Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV® Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
Meditate
“Peter is portrayed here as an authentic apostle of Jesus Christ. The two miracles confirm this suggestion. They followed the example of Jesus; they were performed by the power of Jesus; they were signs of the salvation of Jesus; and they redounded to the glory of Jesus” (John Stott, 1921–2011).
Think Further
We leave Saul behind for a few chapters now. We don’t know why Peter was going “here and there” (32, ESV) among the believers; possibly he was giving apostolic teaching to the new churches in Judea, Galilee and Samaria (cf. Acts 2:42), although we have no examples of this.
We do, however, see how the kingdom of God was demonstrably breaking into the Roman world. The Romans prided themselves on bringing salvation through their conquests and rule, but there were many poor, vulnerable people behind the façade. Someone like Aeneas, disabled, was incapable of providing for a family; his miraculous healing showed the community that God cared about them. Tabitha was just an ordinary Christian, an unsung heroine rather like my cousin, who, for God’s glory, used ordinary home-spun skills lovingly to provide clothes for the widows of her community in the days before social security benefits and mass
production. Their efforts were every bit as vital to the spread of the Gospel as the up-front preaching and healing gifts of the apostles. As N. T. Wright points out, such people are not “ordinary” to God.
What are you good at? Cooking? Car maintenance? Gardening? Are you using your skills for the glory of God, making an impact in the community where you live? I have a Christian friend with computer
skills; he helps out several of us. My Christian window cleaner recently volunteered to paint my porch and garage door for free, using his skills to bless others—and God is glorified.
Apply
Consider who you could bless today in some practical way (a neighbor, perhaps?), thus demonstrating God’s love.
Closing prayer
Dear Lord, I am reminded today that You work through the miraculous and the seemingly mundane. Use me in whatever way You choose, be it dramatic or commonplace.
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