Help Them To Their Feet

Acts 3:2
Now a man crippled from birth was being carried to the temple gate called Beautiful, where he was put every day to beg from those going into the temple courts.

Acts 3:6-7
Then Peter said, “Silver or gold I do not have, but what I have I give you. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, walk.”
Taking him by the right hand, he helped him up, and instantly the man’s feet and ankles became strong.

These two verses are interesting when you look at them side by side. I think they kind of reflect two different ministry philosophies.

There’s a crippled man. He needs help.
One group of people decides to help him by carrying him to the gate to beg everyday.
Peter and John decided to help him by reaching down, pulling him up on his feet, and telling him to walk.

Our ministry philosophy at Agape is more like the latter. We don’t want to be carrying people to the gate to beg. We don’t want to coddle and cater and spoon feed people leaving them unchanged.

But we want to reach down and help people; help them move to the next level. We’ll impart the healing power of Jesus to them. But they’ve got to get up and walk. They have got to make a personal investment into studying God’s Word for themself. They got to have the self-leadership to grow.

How about you? Are you investing too much time in carrying people to the gate and dropping them off to beg? Are you the one doing the begging when you should be lifting somebody else’s burden?

Take some advice from Peter.

In the name of Jesus, walk.