Word for Today....Beautiful Place, Ugly Problem
A certain man lame……they laid daily at the gate called Beautiful.
That really sum up the type of life most of us are living. We are sitting, standing, laying or living in what is supposed to be the most beautiful, successful times of our life but yet we are lame. We have situations and circumstances in our life that hinder our walk. The power of God is more evident in our churches but less manifested in our lives. We are lame! We can't do what God has designed us to do unless we can be healed.
We have here Peter and John coming to the temple at the hour of prayer. I could go on about the hour of prayer but I won’t. I will say prayer is what sets the tone for every miracle, every breakthrough, and every divine appointment. WHEW! I really could just preach on that but back to the story. Peter and John come to the temple at the hour of prayer and either they had seen the man before OR they were coming during a time when he was normally there and they weren’t OR could it be they just finally want to see him make a change in his life that would be permanent. Asking for change would change his economic status temporarily but it wouldn’t change his life like a miracle would.
The bible takes the time to mention that this condition began before his childhood but happened when he was in his mother’s womb. He wasn’t lam from birth but from his mother’s womb. Before he was even born, he was destined to be a beggar, destined to be a burden, destined to be an eye sore. Sometimes our situation and circumstance happened to us before we even had control over our own lives. This is the reason that I think people should get to know each other because when you see me as I am today you don’t know how I got to where I am today. So if you are going to get to know me today you are going to have to know a little bit about me as I am the some total of my past experiences. It took a lifetime for me to get where I am and will take a lifetime to get where I am going.
So Peter and John finds him lying at the gate called Beautiful; begging. Isn’t it odd that the gate would be called Beautiful, the gate is called beautiful but the problem is ugly? Have you ever had an ugly problem in a beautiful place? Look at the situations of life; you can have an ugly problem in a beautiful place. Isn’t it amazing how it can be the best of times and the worst of times all at the same time? If you will admit it in many ways this is the best time of your life, you’re smarter than you have ever been before, and you know more than ever before, you’re more mature than you were before. But on the other hand, there are more areas of your life under attack, there are some areas breaking your heart, causing pain, and there are many areas causing me great trouble. What do you do when your good time clashes into your bad time? What do you do when one part of your life is going up and another part is going down? What do you do when you’re stuck and everybody is walking passed you, going about their business? Because you know people will pass you, in fact, there are people who will walk over you. If you haven’t had a problem you won’t know what I am talking about, but, if you get into REAL trouble people will walk passed you and shake their heads as if they hadn’t gone through or been lame some place at one time. As long as you can clean yourself up, take care of yourself, take care of your own business, pay your own bills, you’ll have a lot of friends. As long as you’re picking up the check after dinner anybody will eat with you. But when you start bouncing checks, losing money, filing for bankruptcy, lose your house, have your car repossessed; you’d be shocked how those same people will walk passed you and go on with their life.
God ordered the steps of Peter and John and lets them see this lame man at the gate called Beautiful. At the same time the church was packed full of worshippers. God will let you be at the right place at the right time with the right people to get what you need from the Lord. The bible says, Peter and John went to him and said look on us, maybe they couldn’t have always said look on us.
The bible says that he looked on them expecting to receive something of monetary value. He didn’t have the faith to expect to receive a miracle. Still operating in the convenient, perhaps envisioning money; but one thing is for certain he expected something to happen….He was healed and went on rejoicing.
If you want to provoke God to move on your behalf you got to expect to receive something. Something happens when you sacrifice, something happens when you press your way, something happens when you fight your way, something happens when you step over your flesh and say, “though you slay me yet shall I trust in you.” And though my problems may be ugly, I have been placed in a position to receive something more beautiful than money, more beautiful than diamonds, more beautiful than fame and notoriety….I am in a position to receive GOD!!! And what could be more beautiful than that!
Be Blessed!
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