May I Carry You?
"Peter and John were going up to the temple for the hour of prayer at
three in the afternoon. Now a man who had been crippled from birth was being
carried in. Every day people would lay him at what was called the Beautiful Gate
so that he could beg from those who were going into the temple. When he saw that
Peter and John were about to go into the temple, he asked them to give him
something. Peter, along with John, looked him straight in the eye and said,
'Look at us!' So the man watched them closely, expecting to get something from
them. However, Peter said, 'I don't have any silver or gold, but I'll give you
what I do have. In the name of Jesus Christ from Nazareth, walk!'" (Acts
3:1-6 ISV) [1]
In Bible times there was nothing wrong about begging if you could not work. You
had to get money or food. If you could not work, the only way you could get
these was to beg. In the Jewish laws it is written that Jewish people are to
help those people who cannot work. In the Scripture above the man was lame and
could not work. He had the best location for a beggar, right outside the temple
gate that most people used. He would see just about everyone that went to the
temple twice or three times a day to pray. He knew where he needed to go to get
the most help.
Where do you go for help? You might go many places, but I would highly recommend
two places for you to go for help. First, go to God. Pray to Him and let Him
know what you need. Jesus asked blind Bartimaeus "What do you want me to do for
you?" Believe it or not, some people have a hard time praying for themselves.
They think they are not worthy to ask God for anything. We are not to treat God
like Santa Claus, but He wants to know our needs so He can fill these needs. The
other place to ask for help is in your church or from other Christians. We need
to help each other.
Some people won't ask for help; from anyone. One reason may be pride. They think
they can work it out themselves. They may have done things all their lives and
at sometime had a setback but since they have always done things themselves,
they think they can do it again by themselves. Don't be one of these but be
willing to ask for help if it is really needed.
The beggar probably got a good deal of money from the people going into the
gate. Most of us are pretty good at giving money and material goods when they
are needed for different causes like local, national or international tragedies.
There may be times when we are led to pray for someone who needs help who is too
far away for us to physically help. There may be times when we see someone that
needs our help and the Holy Spirit nudges us to help them in some other way than
materially. This is what happened to Peter and John. The lame beggar was healed
in the name of Jesus Christ. It was the Holy Spirit that led Peter and John to
reach out to this man and heal him. No telling how many times they had passed
this man as they daily went to the temple to pray. This was the day they were
led to heal the man. You may be led to use one of the gifts of the Holy Spirit
to help someone some day. Maybe it is a gift that you have never used before
like healing. Then, the Holy Spirit leads you to pray for someone right there
and they be healed. You might just be led to stay and talk to someone and
counsel them to help them with their problems using the Scripture that the Holy
Spirit brings to your mind.
In parts of the Southern United States you might hear someone ask somebody, "May
I carry you to town?" This doesn't mean they want to pick you up, put you over
their shoulder and physically carry you to town. What they mean is that they are
offering you a ride to town. The lame beggar had two men who had to carry him to
the temple gate every day. As mentioned above, some people won't ask for help.
Sometimes we have to carry people to help. Sometimes it might be some people who
have always done things by themselves but cannot do some of them now. You may
have to insist on helping them. I heard of one family that had a long bout of
sickness and early in the sickness someone from their church came and asked if
the church members could do something to help. They said everything was under
control. The church member kept asking when finally they said that they could
use help with meals. Several days a week different church members would bring
meals to the family. The member who first went and asked if there was anything
they could do carried this family to the help.
As Christians, we are to help others. Look for ways to help and be sensitive to
the leading of the Holy Spirit in your daily walk. You may be led to give
something, pray for someone, carry someone to help or use one of the gifts of
the Holy Spirit to help them.
By Dean W. Masters
homefurn@preferred.com Unedited
redistribution approved
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[1] International standard version New Testament : Version 1.1. 2000 (Print on
Demand ed.). The Learning Foundation: Yorba Linda, CA