Silver and Gold I do not Have!
Meditation for the week of February 26, 2012
Acts 3:6 Then Peter said, "Silver and gold I do not have, but what I do have I give you: In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk."
Most of us think that we could do great things for the Lord if we just had a pile of money available to us. I know I have had a lot of projects that I would love to have pursued but because I didn’t have the money, I failed to try those projects. However, what really hurts is that sometimes people need financial help when I do not have the money to come along side of them.
I have thought a lot about this and realize that most of the people who were used of the Lord to spread the Gospel in the new testament were people of meager means. The Lord told those that wanted to follow Him that even the foxes had a more permanent dwelling place than He did (Luke 9:58). Obviously, there were people of means who ministered to Him because they believed in Him and because they had been blessed by Him (Luke 8:2-3). Mary of Bethany “wasted” perfume worth about a year’s wages on Him. Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus had the means to give the Lord the burial of a King. However, the new testament disciples did not have a lot of money to throw at their church planting projects, and they didn’t have a lot of money to help the poor. What then did they do when they couldn’t give or spend money? Peter was in that situation in our passage. He didn’t have money, but he had something better. In his case, he could heal. In healing he was able to spread the message that Christ had been raised from the dead and was the One that could save for eternity. Peter told the Jews that they should “Repent therefore and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, so that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord (Acts 3:19).” The times of refreshing likely refer to the return of the Lord when He will set up His earthly Kingdom. Peter was more concerned with the spiritual needs of his audience than he was with their physical needs, but meeting those physical needs gave him the opportunity to meet his audience’s spiritual needs.
What can we offer people today when we have no money? We can offer them friendship, emotional support and encouragement. Friendship has to be real. We cannot pretend to be friends in order to get “points” with the Lord. We need to be supportive and we need to be “there.” When we can’t give money, we can give ourselves which is what the Lord did for us. In doing that, we will be able to give them the Gospel as Peter did. We who are saved have a deposit of the Truth. We need to be concerned that those with whom we are “friends” understand that the Lord Jesus is the Truth and the only way to the Father (John 14:6). We need to be honest with our friends if they are depending on something other than the Lord to get them to heaven. Helping people start for heaven is the greatest gift we can give them—and of course we can’t really give it to them. We can only introduce them to the Lord who can.
Sometimes our lack of resources is because of our lack of faith. In 1st Kings 17, the Lord asked a widow suffering in a serve famine to use the last of her flour and oil to feed Elijah. She did that and the Lord saw fit to keep the bin of flour and jar of oil from running out until the famine was over. She “foolishly” gave all that she had left to the Lord and then the Lord met her needs. However, I believe that sometimes our lack of resources are to remind us Whom we are serving. Lack of resources forces us to keep our eye on the One who provides salvation for eternity and meets our needs during this present life. It is fairly easy to begin depending on people or on corporations or on the government or on ourselves instead of on the Lord.
Sometimes our lack of resources is because the Lord wants us to give “ourselves” to those in need. When we have money, we make a donation and “salve” our consciences into believing we have done what was “required” to be righteous. However if we can’t make a donation, we just might go and help rebuild after a flood or hurricane. We might stand by the sick and hold their hands or the hands of their family when they are suffering. We might listen to the stories of the elderly “over and over again” when they need companionship in old age. We don’t do this for “reward,” instead we do this for the people that we love because they are people the Lord put in this world and that He loves. We may not be able to give “silver and gold” but we can still give ourselves.
I have to admit that I would still like to have access to that pile of money, but I also have to admit that not having silver and gold has often been a great blessing as well.
Bruce Collins