The lame man leaps (1) - All The Good Seed Daily Devotionals for 2024

Now Peter and John went up together to the temple at the hour of prayer, the ninth hour. And a certain man lame from his mother’s womb was carried, whom they laid daily at the gate of the temple which is called Beautiful, to ask alms from those who entered the temple.
Acts 3:1–2

The lame man leaps (1)
Peter and John have a good habit: they go to the temple to pray. We also have habits: in our daily routine, in our job, in our relationships. Do we also know the habit of praying to God regularly – each one for himself, but also, as here, together with others?

At a gate to the temple called “Beautiful” sits a lame beggar. It could not be more of a contrast, because here splendour and misery meet.

Yes, the temple is glorious (Mark 13:1) and the entrance, “Beautiful”, certainly bears its name rightly – but all this glory cannot make the sick person well. A religion, a mere outward worship, cannot help, no matter how beautiful it may appear with liturgies and robes, with beautiful buildings and consecrated objects. What is needed is repentance, faith and a living Person as the object of that faith!

The beggar, over 40 years old and lame from birth, is dependent on bearers and alms-givers – day after day. He symbolises us, as human beings, who are sinful and powerless by nature – powerless because we are not able to redeem ourselves. Each of us is born “in iniquity” and anyone who knows God’s demands on us knows that he cannot fulfil them. We are too weak in ourselves to do so. This helplessness could depress us if there were no way out ...!

(to be continued tomorrow)

Today’s reading: 1 Samuel 16:1-13 · Psalms 102:12-18