THURSDAY 10TH MAY, 2018 MORNING PRAYER DEVOTION
SCRIPTURE READING:- ACTS 3:1-11
TOPIC:– YOU ARE NO MORE LAME [1]
TEXT:– ACTS 3:7
Lame is the condition of being unable or imperfectly able to walk. The inequality of the legs of the lame is used in Proverbs 26:7 as a similitude of the ineptness with which a fool uses a parable.
There are some who suffered from lameness, such as Mephibosheth, whose limbs were injured by a fall in childhood, 2 Samuel 4:4; 9:3.
In the prophetic description of the completeness of the victory of the returning Israelites, it is predicted that the lame shall be made whole and shall leap like a hart, Jeremiah 3:18; Isaiah 35:6.
The unfitness of the lame for warfare gives point to the promise that the lame shall take the prey, Isaiah 33:23.
Job in his graphic description of his helpfulness to the weak before his calamity in Job 29:15.
In the enigmatical and probably corrupt passage describing David’s capture of Jerusalem, the lame and blind are mentioned twice.
In 2 Samuel 5:6 it was a taunt on the part of the Jebusites that even a garrison of cripples would suffice to keep out the Israelites.
We read in Matthew 21:14 that the lame came to our Lord in the temple and were healed. The healing of the lame by our Lord is recorded in Matthew 11:5; 15:30-31; 21:14; Luke 7:22; 14:13.
For the Apostles, miracles of healing the lame are counseled to courage under chastisement, lest their despair should cause that which is lame to be “turned out of the way.” Hebrews 12:13.
On The Lame Man At The Temple Gate, Acts 3:1-11:
1. Peter and John were, as usual, on their way to evening prayer in the Temple. [It is, if not essential to the growth and health of the spiritual life, most desirable to have a friend with whom intercourse is absolutely free and frank. One to whom it is the natural thing to explain the actual state of the spirit, and utter our most skeptical or our most devout thoughts, and who can be trusted to respond charitably, confidentially, and wisely to all communications].
2. Had Peter happened to have had a penny, he would have dropped it in the beggar’s palm and passed on, leaving him content with the alms and unconscious of all he had missed. [And it is sometimes well for us, as for Peter, that we are baulked in our first intentions towards our friends and our first attempts at being of use].
3. Probably Peter had often passed this lame man before. [the two Apostles have not together as much as the poor widow with her two mites, and they are passing and thinking as little as we sometimes think of leaving the needy to the charity of others, when suddenly it occurs to Peter that, after all, he has what may be of more service to the beggar than silver or gold. “What I have, that give I thee”].
4. To add a little to anyone’s outward comfort is always worth doing; but to impart to another what becomes life and strength and encouragement perennially within himself is surely better.
5. Of the lame man little is told us which may give us a clue to his state of mind. He was one of those who had been left unhealed by Christ. [His feelings were akin to the remorse of those who imagine that their day of grace is gone, and exclaim there].
My beloved, apart from the physical lameness there are thousands of Christians that are suffering from spiritual lameness because if you cannot win souls, propagate the gospel and evangelize, you are suffering from spiritual lameness. How many souls have you won for Christ this year?
Prayer Points:-
1. O Lord my God, deliver me from spiritual lameness, in the name of Jesus Christ.
2. Father, heal and make whole every area of my life that is suffering form lameness, in the name of Jesus Christ.
3. I command, I’m no more lame, in the name of Jesus Christ.
Have A Fulfilling Thursday!
