In Acts 3, Peter and John walk past a Gate of the temple called Beautiful, and they see the man who is always begging at that gate. He is a cripple. As people walk by into the temple, Peter says to the man, "Silver and gold I do not have, but what I have I give you." And he tells the man to, in the name of Jesus, get up and walk. There is way much more, in my opinion, to this story than the fact that they didn't have any gold and silver. I think them not having gold and silver was a definite God-thing. It would have been the easy way out. Not having gold and silver merely allowed Peter's eyes to be open and to realize what the real issue was. The real issue wasn't that the man didn't have any money- but that, because he was a cripple, he had no way of making money for himself and holding his own. For years, people had walked by the gate and tried to alleviate the symptoms. But Peter, through the power of Christ, alleviated the problem, so that the man could, with the power of Christ, alleviate the symptoms. And then they reached their hands out to him and helped him stand up. And the man ran into the temple praising God for what He had done. Is that the type of giving we are practicing? Or are we merely just trying to solve the symptoms? It's much harder to have to trust in Christ to actually heal the man than it is to merely give money and walk on into the temple to learn about God. Our God isn't a God who just wants to make your hurts feel better for right now. He's the type of God who wants to come in and heal you so that you won't have to hurt anymore. He's the type of God who wants to show you that, in all things, He is there and can be your strength. So that no amount of hurt will ever leave you down and out- because He will bear the pain. So. Let's look at our lives and look at our service. How are we giving?
