Daily Devotional Tuesday 25th February 2020
by William Moody
Acts 5:12–16
Many Signs and Wonders Done
12 Now many signs and wonders were regularly done among the people by the hands of the apostles. And they were all together in Solomon’s Portico. 13 None of the rest dared join them, but the people held them in high esteem. 14 And more than ever believers were added to the Lord, multitudes of both men and women, 15 so that they even carried out the sick into the streets and laid them on cots and mats, that as Peter came by at least his shadow might fall on some of them. 16 The people also gathered from the towns around Jerusalem, bringing the sick and those afflicted with unclean spirits, and they were all healed.
(ESV)
The power of God continued to move (v12) and the result on the community was a mixture of high regard for the believers, but there was also a fear to join them (v13). There will always be a fear that holds people back from coming to be part of the people of God. If that fear is to be overcome, then one of the ways it will happen is for the lives of Christians to be held in such high regard. How do outsiders view you?
Despite the nervousness, people still were saved and added to the fellowship (v14). If God’s people live holy lives and pray for God to move, then in God’s time people will be saved. We talk about a gap between the church and the community. That was true in Jerusalem, but the gap was overcome through the attractive holy lives of believers and God’s power at work.
God’s power continued to be seen in lives transformed as people were healed and delivered from evil that controlled them (v15-16). As we look out to a needy community around us and to a needy world, we need to be convinced that Christ has not changed and continues to be the answer to the needs of people out there. Pray for the lost you know to be drawn to Christ.
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