Get Up (And Make Your Bed)

Scripture: Acts 9:32-43

32 Meanwhile, Peter traveled from place to place, and he came down to visit the believers in the town of Lydda. 33 There he met a man named Aeneas, who had been paralyzed and bedridden for eight years. 34 Peter said to him, “Aeneas, Jesus Christ heals you! Get up, and roll up your sleeping mat!” And he was healed instantly. 35 Then the whole population of Lydda and Sharon saw Aeneas walking around, and they turned to the Lord. (Acts 9:32-35 NLT)

Acts 9 begins with the story of Saul of Tarsus’ encounter with the living Jesus Christ on the road from Jerusalem to Damascus. Saul was immediately transformed from a Jesus-hater and believer-persecutor to a passionate witness of the risen Christ and preacher of the Good News. Saul witnessed so fervently and preached so effectively that the Jews for whom he had been the “Anti-Jesus Poster Child” tried to kill him in Damascus and plotted again to kill him soon after he escaped to Jerusalem. After the church had accepted him through Barnabas’ sponsorship, he soon was sent to his home town of Tarsus until things cooled down.

Meanwhile, in Lydda, Peter encountered a paralyzed man and spoke words of faith that immediately and completely healed the man. This miracle healing so impacted the villages of Lydda and Sharon that the whole population became believers and turned to Jesus. Then, in nearby Joppa, when Dorcas died, her friends sent messengers to beg Peter to come. When he arrived, Peter knelt beside the bed they had laid her on, prayed, and said, “Get up, Tabitha!” She opened her eyes, sat up, and Peter presented her alive to her friends! (It seems as if “Get up!” was a favorite phrase for Peter!) Because of this miracle, many people in the town believed in the Lord. Peter stayed a long time in Joppa. I’m pretty sure they were happy to have him!

The effect of these two miracles was that people woke up to the fact that God was alive and active among them. I know God is alive and active among us.  Every week I hear of the things our alive and active God is doing in people’s lives.  When we become fully aware that God is alive and active among us, how will that change our attitudes and behavior – and our lives?

Prayer:

Father, I know you are alive and active among us as well. When we see the needs all around us, we long for your “aliveness and activeness” to take on the powerful and dramatic nature of your encounter with Saul of Tarsus and Aeneas of Lydda! Is there something that needs to happen? Is there something we need to do? Is it a matter of timing? I ask you to make us truly and fully aware that you are alive and active among us. Amen.