First of all, I do want to praise God this morning. A couple that are some very good friends of ours welcomed their first child into the world early this morning. It is my prayer that God will continually watch over and protect this wonderful blessing, and that this young man will accomplish wonderful things for God’s kingdom in return.
This is a wonderful example of what God can accomplish when living by faith. This ties in because we see a poor example and a good example in the beginning of Acts chapter 5. The first part, Ananias and Sapphira were given a piece of property they intended to sell and give the money to Christ’s cause. Instead of giving the entire thing, however, they kept a piece for themselves.
5When Ananias heard this, he fell down and died. And great fear seized all who heard what had happened. 6Then the young men came forward, wrapped up his body, and carried him out and buried him.
7About three hours later his wife came in, not knowing what had happened. 8Peter asked her, "Tell me, is this the price you and Ananias got for the land?"
"Yes," she said, "that is the price."
9Peter said to her, "How could you agree to test the Spirit of the Lord? Look! The feet of the men who buried your husband are at the door, and they will carry you out also." – Acts 5:5-9
We see the opposite of this in the following verses. Here people traveled for hundreds of miles, not easy in that day and time, just to have the shadow of Peter cast upon them so they could be healed. These people were very different from Ananias and his wife. They fully believed in the power of Christ to provide everything for them, including healing if needed. They were rewarded for their faith, while Ananias was punished for his lack of faith because he didn’t believe God would cover all his needs.
I wish I could carry this kind of faith over to my own life. I lie awake at night wonder if that is what holds me back in so many areas.
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