Acts 3:8-10 So he, leaping up, stood and walked and entered the temple with them—walking, leaping, and praising God. And all the people saw him walking and praising God. Then they knew that it was he who sat begging alms at the Beautiful Gate of the temple; and they were filled with wonder and amazement at what had happened to him.

A man who had been lame from birth, who was day after day brought to the steps at the Beautiful Gate to beg, on this day came face to face with two Apostles, Peter and John. Peter said to this man, “In the Name of Jesus Christ, rise up and walk” and he did. There is no other Name by which we should walk and no other Savior whom we should follow. If we are devotionally following Christ, we will be learning contentment in our own lives and discontentment with the world. Just as Jesus was content in the will of His Father, yet discontent with the state of the world if we are going to be salt and light, we must be the same, content in the will of God yet discontent with the world as it is.

This man was not healed at the time that Peter spoke, rather it was at his own rising up which was an action taken in faith. Let’s take a moment to talk about healing and faith; there are three aspects to this:

First, there is Peter’s faith. He believed that God would heal this man, otherwise, he probably wouldn’t have begun the conversation. He said that he had no silver and gold to give, so Peter’s intention from the start was to see this man healed by God. Second, is the lame man’s faith. This man had been lame in his feet and ankles since birth and had been begging from the same place for years with many devout people passing by every day. He certainly had no expectation that this day would be any different from any other day. But you know, from where he had been begging, he would have seen a lot of things. Perhaps he had even heard Jesus teach. He may have been there the day that the Apostles spoke in tongues and the church was born. Whatever the case, when Peter instructed him to rise, he took Peter’s hand and rose. This was an act of faith. Think about how disappointing it would have been had his lame feet folded under him and he tumbled down the stairs! Yet he took Peter’s hand and rose, then he stood on his healed feet and then he leapt and praised God. Third, there is God’s willingness and His healing power. You know, sometimes we hear people say that God is doing all this healing over there in this other country but it doesn’t happen here. First of all, that is untrue, healing does happen in this country and for all we know it may happen more here than it does any where else, but when it does happen here we doubt it. When it doesn’t happen here we say it’s because there is doubt. I think miraculous healing is very much for today and I don’t think that God has quit healing or limited healing to certain areas of the globe. Scripture makes it clear that God delights in healing and that He is willing to heal. I don’t believe that we can limit God’s ability by simply not believing, but scripture is very clear that God responds to faith.

You know, many people in church today equate skepticism with being solid in the faith, because the church needs to be seen by the world as rational and scientific … Hey, we can’t have all that faith stuff happening because the world will think we’re nuts! Or could it be that the world would be amazed? That’s what we see over and over again in scripture. People saw the miracles and they were amazed and moved to awe and reverence for God. I once heard someone propose a very interesting idea which was, instead of skeptically questioning miracles, let’s skeptically question doubt and uncertainty. That’s what Jesus did, in fact, Mark 6:6 says He marveled at the unbelief of the people. We don’t want to accept everything that we hear about, read about or see broadcast. There is a lot of foolishness out there and a lot of things that have nothing to do with God. But if it glorifies God and it jives with scripture, then why not? Just because there are some things that are way off target out there, let’s not dismiss those things that are clearly by the hand of the Lord.

So then, the question might be, well, why does God heal sometimes and not other times? I honestly don’t know, but there is obviously some divine response or recognition of faith and belief that goes into it. I think that God at times heals us because He knows the fruit of that healing is going to be good. I think other times He withholds healing because He has other plans. If we are going to accept that God can miraculously heal we also have to accept that He is sovereign and all knowing and that His plans for us are good. When God moves in our lives in a miraculous way, we should, like this man, celebrate it and praise Him for it. When God withholds healing we should also praise Him for it. Which do you think requires the greater faith and honors God the most? The faith needed to be healed, or the devotion to God that will praise Him without the healing. Let’s be content with God’s answers and praise Him because there is healing either way … today or in heaven.