January 9
‘For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God.’ Ephesians 2:8
Bible reading: Acts 3:11-26 (Go to the Bible passage)
A great miracle had happened, Peter and John were stared at in amazement. The people, who came running, thought these men were truly great. What power and godliness they had to have to achieve something like this!
But Peter and John loved their Lord so much that they could not stand being honored instead of Jesus.
Therefore, they addressed the gathering crowd immediately and talked about the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Therefore they lovingly told them about Jesus, Who was killed by the people, but Whom God raised to life! And it was this Jesus, the risen Lord, Who had given this cripple faith to be healed.
Oh, we can enforce a certain belief onto ourselves, but true faith is surely a gift of God, given to us from heaven, which cannot be acquired but only accepted with a grateful heart.
The faith we acquire by ourselves is idolatry, even if we have acquired a doctrine about Jesus by studying the Bible! God hates idolatry and it is this - even the Christian idolatry - that causes God to hide Himself from us.
We can believe with all our heart that the story of this miraculous cure is really true because it says so in the Bible. But finding ourselves being cured by faith, comes about only through many trials by which we get to know Him ever better as the risen Lord, as Peter and John knew Him. Only that way we learn to confess and reject all idolatry as sin. Only then we can come to live in a real relationship with God, Who then will prove to be our Physician as the Bible tells us.

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