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Devotionals
"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 3:2
We're not told. Luke does not give us the names of those who carried this man who had been lame from birth and laid him every day at the Beautiful Gate. All that we're told is that Peter and John found him and healed him where "they" had placed him. That is both interesting and encouraging. The main participants in this soul-stirring scene are the nameless men who brought him there that day. Isn't that the way it is so many times? Those who do so much to bring the lame to the place of healing and help are nameless, known only to God? Haven't we all been carried along in our lives by unknown, obscure hands? And when we pass through those beautiful gates do we stop to remember the debt that we owe to the unknown? What about those, who like the angel Jacob met, bless us but refuse to give their names? What about the fathers, mothers, sisters, brothers - strangers even - who helped us in those needed hours and days?
"who also has sealed us and given us the Spirit in our hearts as a guarantee.” 2 Corinthians 1:22
The Spirit’s guarantee is always found in the heart. It is more than just wanting to be good. It is a God-given desire to be more than what you are apart from Him. You see, the Spirit has great heights that rise before Him – heights of understanding and accomplishment, heights of Golgotha and the Garden Tomb, but its earnest, its down payment is a simple desire of the heart.
Just like Sharon’s Rose springs from the bud of longing, the first gift that God gives my soul is a sense of lacking, the realizing of an empty heart. It is that emptiness that tells me that I am more than some sort of animal. I am the highest, crowning creation of the Creating God. As such I bear His fingerprints on my soul.
