Living Hope for Living Life
Acts 3:1-7...1 One day at three o'clock in the afternoon, Peter and John were on their way into the Temple for prayer meeting. 2 At the same time there was a man crippled from birth being carried up. Every day he was set down at the Temple gate, the one named Beautiful, to beg from those going into the Temple. 3 When he saw Peter and John about to enter the Temple, he asked for a handout. 4 Peter, with John at his side, looked him straight in the eye and said, "Look here." 5 He looked up, expecting to get something from them. 6 Peter said, "I don't have a nickel to my name, but what I do have, I give you: In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, walk!" 7 He grabbed him by the right hand and pulled him up. In an instant his feet and ankles became firm.
Peter and John didn't have anything of value to give to the crippled man sitting by the Temple gate. At least not in this temporal existence, but they did have something they could give that came from the Messiah, Jesus. When Peter said, "Look here", he was commanding the man's attention to look at Peter, not because of what who Peter was, rather becuase of Who was in Peter. The only thing Peter and John had to offer the man was Jesus Christ or a Living Hope; hope that Peter later wrote about in his letter to 1 Peter 1:3 when he said,"Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His abundant mercy has begotten us again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead...".
It is this living hope or Jesus, we must cling onto in the midst of our turmoil or in the bow of the storm. Remember what comes along with Jesus' skill set? He can speak peace to a raging storm, raise the dead from eternal sleep and provide healing to those who have walked a road of deep suffering. Why? Because He is "the way, the truth and the life" (John 14:6) and His great annointing is the power that delivers us out of "darkness into His marvelous light" (1 Peter 2:9).
What does this really mean to those who are searching for peace in the times of real struggles? Reach out to the Living Hope so that living life becomes more than an everyday begging exersise by the gate; accept the gift that only Jesus can give. A living hope for living life!
