Praise part 5
Acts chapter 3 has an interesting story about a man who was "...lame from his mother's womb" (Acts 3:2). This dude sees Peter and John, two of Jesus' disciples, and was, "...expecting to receive something of them" (Acts 3:5). He was a beggar. He couldn't work, because he had been born lame. So he just sat, hoping that people would have enough mercy on him to give him money. Well, when he looked at Peter this happened: "Then Peter said, Silver and gold have I none; but such as I have give I unto thee: In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth rise up and walk" (Acts 3:6). The dude was expecting something, but he got a whole lot more than he bargained for. Kind of like the old saying, "If you give a man a fish he'll eat for a day. If you TEACH a man to fish he'll eat for a lifetime." Jesus--in this case working through his disciples--isn't really interested in putting a band-aid on. He wants to go to the root of the problem and SOLVE the problem. Total cleansing. Total healing. Now watch this, and this is where I want to end this Rant series, really hammering home the point I've been trying to make, "And he leaping up stood, and walked, adn entered with them into the temple, walking, and leaping, and praising God" (Acts 3:8). This man who never in his wildest dreams ever thought he would be able to walk... who had never known walking... born lame from his mother's womb... this man who was doing the best he could just begging for another day of survival... had an encouter with the goodness of God that could only leave him praising God. He didn't tell Peter and John how much he loved Jesus. He looked at them expecting--EXPECTING--to get something from them. Almost as if he was entitled to it. "I'm poor. I can't work. Gimme some money." And, look, I'm not trying to get down on this guy. I can't imagine what it's like to go through your entire life like that. Pretty hopeless, I'd say. People carry you to a good spot so you can beg other people for money so you can make it one more day. That's the BEST you can hope for? Yikes. But then, again, he got more than he bargained for. Not because of anything HE did... but because of WHO Peter and John were. Because they had something to give that was exceedingly, abundantly more than what he could ask for or even think of. He didn't ask for healing. He just wanted to be able to buy some food. But what he got was restoration. He got put back to how he was supposed to be. Healed. From lame... to walking. Leaping. Dancing. Using those legs like they were the best things going. And using his mouth to praise God. It was his natural reaction. It was the only possible reaction. So let me end with this: We don't "praise" God in order to try to get something from Him. That's backwards. We praise God because we have gotten something from Him. Because we have gotten healing, grace, mercy, restoration, forgiveness... LOVE from Him. We love because He FIRST loved us. So we know He gives before we even ask. We know that what He has for us is better than what we could possibly even imagine for ourselves. And that, friends, is praise-worthy. That is how we praise Him, and that is WHY we praise Him!