Great Plains Daily Devotional for 4/28/2020

Acts 3:11-13, 16 

While he clung to Peter and John, all the people ran together to them in the portico called Solomon’s Portico, utterly astonished. When Peter saw it, he addressed the people, “You Israelites, why do you wonder at this, or why do you stare at us, as though by our own power or piety we had made him walk? The God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, the God of our ancestors has glorified his servant Jesus, whom you handed over and rejected in the presence of Pilate, though he had decided to release him.

And by faith in his name, his name itself has made this man strong, whom you see and know; and the faith that is through Jesus has given him this perfect health in the presence of all of you.

I’ve never been healed like the man at Solomon’s Porch was. I’ve always been able to walk, and I’ve never experienced that kind of miracle before. But I have been saved from my own anger and bitterness. I have been healed from long-term grudges.

Perhaps you’ve experienced a miracle similar to the ones in Acts; maybe not. But I bet you’ve experienced wholeness and healing somehow – physical, mental, relational, or spiritual. I invite you to reflect on that today – where have you experienced healing? What scars do you have that tell a story of healing?

May your scars remind you that God was present and got you through - that God will never abandon you in turbulent times; that hope is never truly extinguished.  
 
May they be a reminder to you to push through on the wounds that you aren't sure can be healed.  In the places where the pain just seems too deep. May your scars - physical, mental, relational, or spiritual - remind you that the power of God’s healing is stronger than any force of hurting.
 
We live in a world that is desperate to know if healing can happen.  People are longing to believe that what is broken can be mended.  Scars define us - may we proudly bear our scars, and with them proclaim the hope of our faith - there is a healing stronger than the world’s hurting, and that the pains which threatened to break us...are behind us.  

Prayer for Reflection

Acts 2 2:14a, 36-41
Psalm 116:1-4, 12-19
1 Peter 1:17-23
Luke 24:13-35