"...who was lame from birth and had never walked. He listened to Paul as he was speaking. Paul looked directly at him, saw that he had faith to be healed and called out, 'Stand up on your feet!' At that, the man jumped up and began to walk." Acts 14:8b-10
"The title of this devotion comes from the perspective of the cripple: "He listened to Paul as he was speaking." The cripple believed the message; Paul "saw that he had faith"; and finally "the man jumped up." Notice the change in description, at first he was described as a cripple, but somewhere between the time Paul saw that he had the faith to be healed and Paul's call to stand up—he was healed and made complete -- the "man" jumped up.
I think there is a very fine line between the faith to be healed and the belief that you are. Pay attention: it wasn't the cripple who jumped up, it was the man.
We pray for healing all the time, but who gets up from our knees after our prayer, the one crippled by a life event or the man (or woman), now complete—healed not just by faith but by belief? Many of us do not recognize we are healed from a physical, emotional or circumstantial ailment because we never lift our eyes from the problem to see the love of our Lord expressed in our healing.
We don't really believe that God heard and answered our prayer. We continue to function as cripples despite being healed. Would this event have been recorded in the Book of Acts if the cripple had not jumped up and walked? The concept is this: "faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead" (James 2:17). Sometimes we need to move from an intellectual understanding that God 'can' heal to a belief that He 'has', then act accordingly--get up and 'try' to walk. We might just find out that we are healed.
Questions to Ponder:
The Lord spoke to me when I wrote this Devotion: 'If the cripple had never tried to get up, how would he have known that I (the Lord) healed him?' Think about that the next time you pray for healing.
[Please note: I do not intend to imply that if the Lord decides not to heal us it indicates a lack of faith or belief on our part. The Lord acts sovereignly on all of these issues. However, if the Lord chooses to heal us it doesn't necessarily mean we will always recognize the fact that we are healed."]
Thoughts for today from Pocket Devotions www.ptl.org 6/7/12
Lord, help us to be believers!
Today’s 21st truth: If you are “born again”, you are blessed coming in and blessed going out. (Deu. 28:6)
You may contact me at jowildflowers@gmail.com http://www.jean-oathout.blogspot.com
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