SEEING THROUGH THE ROUTINE

But Peter said, “I do not possess silver and gold, but what I do have I Give to you: In the name of Jesus Christ the Nazarene—walk!”

Scripture: Acts 3:1-10

Routines. They aren’t bad as they provide practical ways for us to plan our day and navigate our often-cumbersome schedules with a little less stress and a little more ease.

Most of us probably take the same paths to work, stop at the same places for coffee or breakfast, get up at the same time, you name it. I am sure as soon as you read the word routine that you started thinking about things that are part of your daily path.

My mornings are fairly routine, to the point that the employees at the place I stop to grab ice water and a quick bite to eat all know me by name!

Again, nothing wrong with routines like that, however, what could we be missing in our routines? Perhaps we get so used to the same thing every day that we may not see opportunities that are staring us in the face!

Here, in Acts 3, we see our friends Peter and John doing something they did all the time, it was the king of routines. Jews and devout Gentiles went to the temple daily to pray. This was a common practice and took place 3 times a day: 9 AM, 3 PM and sunset. This specific occurrence was 3 PM. #routine

There was a man that was never able to use his legs, ever. This man was carried EVERY DAY to the temple gate. #routine

As people went to the temple, the majority of people preferred to go through the gate called Beautiful. People like this man caught on and realized they could sit there and ask for money because the Jews are constantly walking past it to go pray. Lucky for these beggars, Jews thought it was an act of praise to give money to them, so they cashed in!

Now, that really only works when the people passing by have money to give. Peter and John, they didn’t have that to offer.

What we have here are two people whose daily routines are intersecting. They probably passed by each other multiple times! They probably both focused so much on their daily routine that they didn’t think much of what else was going on around them. It wasn’t new for Peter and John to be going to pray at the temple and it wasn’t new for this man to be begging for money. It probably wasn’t new that they would pass by each other either.

The beautiful thing that takes place here is that Peter and John yielded to the Holy Spirit here and used the routine as an opportunity to bring the miraculous to the mundane/ordinary. They had no money to offer but offered something far greater: the use of his legs (and ultimately, gave them a powerful, personal experience with God)! Peter said “In the name of Jesus Christ the Nazarene—walk!”.

What a powerful moment! What’s greater is the way the man responded. He didn’t grab a railing or ask people to help him up to see if he could walk, no, HE LEAPT! Not only did he jump to his feet but he jumped up and leapt around praising God!

And ALL the people saw him walking and praising God. Since he was there every day being carried in, most everyone knew who he was! To see him walking, jumping and giving all the glory and credit to God, what a testimony!

So, I will end this with a simple question: How does God want to use what you may write off as just an ordinary part of your day or perhaps just a necessary path to get where you really want to go to bring something greater to the world around you? This man being healed was only a fraction of the miracle here! The most amazing part of it all is that he praised God and revealed God’s glory, power and goodness to those around him!

Therefore, let us live ready to yield to God’s guidance throughout every part of our lives, even the parts that we may just think of as mundane and ordinary, because God can do amazing things at any time!