Your Marching Orders
Then Peter said, “Silver and gold I do not have, but what I do have I give you: In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk.” Acts 3:6
You are probably familiar with the scripture passage we are looking at today. It is the account of the Apostles Peter and John going up to the temple for prayer and meeting a lame man at the gate, Beautiful. The guy was put there daily to receive anything that the people passing by would give him. That was his entire reason for existence, to wake up each day to be laid at the gate to receive a handout. Enough to get by until the next day. I’m sure there were days he was taken advantage of and certainly many days that he was discouraged. However, the passage says that He was there every day, and the reason was because someone brought him there. He had no choice in the matter but to do exactly what someone else decided for him. He was paralyzed and depended completely on others to take care of him.
On the day Peter and John showed up, things drastically changed for the lame man. This day, he didn’t receive alms, he received his walking orders, literally. Peter told him, “I don’t have any money, but what I do have will change your life and that is the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.” Peter told the man to get up and walk. Then he helped the man get up and sent him out to tell the good news of his healing and salvation. This man had been held down his entire life because of a condition that he was born with. He was born lame and unable to be free from this circumstance because there was no cure. But God had an answer and God had a purpose for this man to be called to a new life and get out from under the constraints that he was born with. He was now released from what held him back his entire life.
You were born with a condition also; we all were. It is the condition of being under sin and being held down by the enemy of our soul. We were born into the bondage of the old nature and until we are rescued by the Savior, we remain in that condition without a possibility of getting up from it. But praise God you have called on the name of the Lord Jesus for help and He has saved you and given you a orders to get up and walk. Walk out your mission in the world. You have your marching orders to tell others the wonderful works of God in your life. You are part of God’s army now, deployed to be on a rescue assignment. You are called to get up from what had been holding you down and go! Go tell the world around you about the good news of salvation and help rescue those who are still caught in the curse and lost in this life.
We all are on the same mission. We have been chosen and called to reach those far from God and bring them close to Him so they can receive His love and provision to have a relationship with Him. This is an all hands on deck call and it is time to get up from what is holding us down and walk out our mission each day. We can do this in the same way the lame man did back on the day he was rescued. He went out walking and leaping and praising God. He proclaimed the wonderful works of God in his life and you can tell others about the great things God has rescued you from also. Your story is your greatest witness.
Today I want to encourage you to get up and walk! Walk out the plan of God for your life to rescue others. Walk out the purpose you were born for by praising God and walk out the mission your have been called to by proclaiming the love of God to the world around you. Your marching orders are the same as the man’s at the gate Beautiful. Get up from under the things that are holding you down and walk out your days in the freedom of the salvation that Jesus died to get you.
Today’s scripture reading: Acts 3:1-10
1 Now Peter and John went up together to the temple at the hour of prayer, the ninth hour.
2 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;
3 who, seeing Peter and John about to go into the temple, asked for alms.
4 And fixing his eyes on him, with John, Peter said, “Look at us.”
5 So he gave them his attention, expecting to receive something from them.
6 Then Peter said, “Silver and gold I do not have, but what I do have I give you: In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk.”
7 And he took him by the right hand and lifted him up, and immediately his feet and ankle bones received strength.
8 So he, leaping up, stood and walked and entered the temple with them—walking, leaping, and praising God.
9 And all the people saw him walking and praising God.
10 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.
The Daily Dose 