Daily Devotional August 6 - God thoughts Are Remarkable

"And a certain man lame from his mother's womb was carried, whom they laid daily at the gate of the temple which is called Beautiful, to ask alms of them that entered into the temple; Who seeing Peter and John about to go into the temple asked an alms. And Peter said, silver and gold have I none; but such as I have give I thee: In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth rise up and walk....and when Peter saw it, he answered unto the people, ye men of Israel, why marvel ye at this? or why look ye so earnestly on us, as though by our own power or holiness we had made this man to walk?...And His name (Jesus) through faith in His name hath made this man strong, whom ye see and know: yea, the faith by which is by him hath given him this perfect soundness in the presence of you all."  The Acts 3:2-6, 12, 16

Peter and John were vessels for the glory of God to work through, nothing more and nothing less. They could heal no one, just like no one can heal today either, but they were operating in faith and the power of God that God allows to be in us that did heal the man. It was activated faith that healed the man.
Now some would contend that everyone is healed that has faith. But you know that is not true. There are many faithful servants of God that are not healed miraculously and many others die having never been healed. God is in charge of that department, not you and me. But God does still heal. There is an element of mystery here that bothers a great many believers and non-believers alike. They don't understand why God allows so many awful things to happen to so many good people. I look at it this way and I hope this helps you. The question shouldn't be, "why did God allow something to happen." The question should be, "what am I going to do with what God allowed to happen?"

The answer to "what am I going to do with what God allowed to happen," is the direct result of your own personal measure of faith. This perspective allows for the movement of God in your life without tying God down to have to do everything your way. I don't understand, nor do I agree with every outcome in life. I have felt many times that God should have done it differently, but I am the clay. What could I possibly know about being God?

Also, God has already explained to us that every wicked thing that happens, every sickness, every evil thought, every evil action and all that is not pure comes from three sources:
The fall of man
The evil one (satan and his emissaries)
Our own selfish actions

Everything that goes wrong can be attributed to one of these sources. Unfortunately, too many come from our own disobedience. We mess it up and then beg God to fix it. I'm not saying it is that way in your case, but overall, we played a huge role in our current situation and along with the unfair actions of others and the actions of the spiritual underworld, we might not be living out what we thought we would be at this point in life. But the answer to this dilemma is this. What are you going to do with what God allowed to happen?

• Why not turn things around?
• Why not use your gifts and talents to bring in a little income and benefit the world also?
• Why not drop the bitter attitude and replace it with faith for the future?
• Why not increase your faith and be better prepared the next time evil comes knocking at the door?
• Why not give God your very best for a season?

Remember Peter said, "Silver and gold have I none, but such as I have I give thee."