What Do You Have?

". . . but what I do have I give you." (Acts 6:3)

In Acts 3, Peter and John are greeted by a lame beggar at the Temple gate. The beggar had been carried there and is asking for alms - for money. The makes the request to everyone who passes by, including Peter and John. Since they have no money to give to him, they give him what they do have instead.

In Acts 3:6-7 Peter says these words, "Silver and gold I do not have, but what I do have I give you. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, walk." Probably the last thing the man was expecting. He was healed and walked from that place he had been carried to every day.




I was listening to a message on this passage of Scripture a couple of days ago and those few words from verse 6 jumped out at me.

". . . but what I do have I give you."

 

Peter and John didn't have money to give the man. They had something different they could offer him. The gave the lame beggar healing - he was now able to walk.

The speaker I was listening to made the point that we can only give to other people what we actually have to give. The same as Peter and John did here.

We can only give what we have to those around us - whether materially or spiritually. If we don't have it ourselves, there is no way for us to pass it on to another person.

It's most obvious in the physical realm. It we don't have the money, we can't give it to someone else. If we don't have food, we can't give it to someone else.

It's when it comes to spiritual things that it can become more difficult to see how this looks. If we don't have a confidence in who we are in Christ, we can't give it to someone else. Probably, the biggest one I've learned with this blog is that if I haven't started the journey of learning what I write about for myself, I will struggle to communicate to others.

The good news in all of this is that God doesn't ask us to give we don't have. He only asks us to give what we have.

". . . but what I do have I give you."

What do you have to give?