READING:
One-year plan: 2 Chronicles 12-16, Acts 5:1-32
Two-year plan: Deuteronomy 31, Luke 5:1-11
——–
It’s one of those Bible stories that you read once, and then re-read just to make sure you read it properly. The disciples were spreading the gospel through Jerusalem, and many were believing. Even after opposition developed, the believers just continued preaching the Word, and God continued blessing their work. So great were the miracles they worked that the people continued bringing sick and the demon possessed to them, and “all of them were healed” (Acts 5:16).
Some, in fact, brought the sick to them and laid them on mats in the streets in hopes that “at least Peter’s shadow might fall on some of them as he passed by” (Acts 5:15). The text doesn’t say that the shadow actually produced healings, but the implication is that the power of God was so great in Peter that just being near him evidenced God’s presence. Even in just his shadow.
That’s amazing to me. This is the fisherman who denied even knowing Jesus. God had not only forgiven him, but had now chosen to use him in a mighty way. The apostle who had tried to blend into the crowd in his denial now so walked with God that the crowds came to him. In no way could he deny knowing Jesus if even his shadow gave evidence of it. God apparently just oozed out of him.
PERSONAL REFLECTION: Does God ooze out of you?
DAILY PRAYER: “Father, helping me walk with You in a powerful way.”
MONDAY’S READINGS:
One-year plan: 2 Chronicles 17-20, Acts 5:33-7:8
Two-year plan: Deuteronomy 32, Luke 5:12-26
*first published in 2017