Customary Faith Brings Extraordinary Results

Text: Acts 3:1-11
Theme: When good habits and strong faith are present, miracles follow.
Key verses: “One day at three o’clock in the afternoon, a customary time for daily prayer, Peter and John walked to the temple. Some people were carrying in a man who had been paralyzed since birth. Every day they brought him to a place…so he could beg or money from people entering to worship. He saw Peter and John coming and asked them for a contribution” (v. 1-3). Then Peter took the man’s right hand and lifted him to his feet. Instantly the man’s fee and ankles grew strong” (v. 7). “Everyone was absolutely amazed at this wonderful miracle…” (v. 11).
What God said to me: Dwayne, what you are doing right now, meeting with me, journaling our time together and the prayers you are constantly lifting to me–I notice each and every time and every act of faithfulness. Peter and John were going to pray at 3:00 as was their custom. I like customs and traditions that keep my people praying and seeking my face. What if they had not observed that custom? What would have been the chances then that they would have encountered the crippled man? I honor habits that honor me. Did Peter and John have any idea they would see such a miracle that day? Could that have been any part of their motivation for going to pray in the temple? Not at all. They were doing the ordinary, but I was up to the extraordinary all along. That crippled man had a habit and custom of coming to beg. The people who brought him everyday had a good habit of helping. Peter and John had a better habit of praying. But I orchestrated the intersecting of these habits and performed a miracle in my time in my supernatural and wonderfully surprising way. But it all flowed from normal everyday habits.
What I said to God: Father, I needed to be reminded of the huge importance of daily habits–especially of seeking your face and of reading your Word. I am discouraged. You know that. I could really use a miracle. But my job is to daily seek you and lift my petitions to you. My responsibility is to stay faithful in the simple sometimes mundane habits of life–habits which honor you. Then I know that your miracles will follow, maybe not so much for me, but for those I come across. Perhaps in the end that’s really the kind of miracles I need anyway–those which flow through me to others, rather than only to me.