Glory to God

"And His name, through faith in His name, has made this man strong, whom you see and know. Yes, the faith which comes through Him has given him this perfect soundness in the presence of you all.”‭‭ Acts‬ ‭3‬:‭16‬

Here is the simple Gospel, how we are saved, how we are healed and how we receive all things from God. "And His name, through faith in His name" is the reason but bystanders always want to credit some human ability. Peter addresses their wrong conclusion "why look so intently at us, as though by our own power or godliness we had made this man walk?" (Acts 3:12).  Re-directing the credit and praise toward Christ is important for the Elect to do, because people are desperate for something and someone to believe in. People will quickly put their faith in God's representative, the preacher of God's Kingdom or the agent of miracles instead of the Source of the miracles. If we order a gift for a loved one from an online retailer and have it delivered to their house, it's not the delivery guy who is the source of the gift, nor should he get any credit at all. The delivery guy is just doing the job he has been hired to do. It is the giver of the gift that gets all the credit and all the gratitude.  

Jesus made this point very clear to his disciples. "So likewise you, when you have done all those things (works of the Kingdom) which you are commanded, say, ‘We are unprofitable servants. We have done what was our duty to do.’ ” (Luke 17:10)   We only say "look at us" to gain people's attention, to create a platform to preach about Jesus and His wonderful name. If the Elect leave this important point unaddressed, people will put their faith in them. It is not based on the Elect's power or godliness but in the name of Jesus, in His power and godliness that all miracles are possible. We passionately pursue holiness (Hebrews 12:14) because it does impact the presence and power of the Holy Spirit in our lives but we don't credit our holiness (Peter says godliness) for a miracle.

Otherwise, it subtly puts the attention back on human effort and can become a source of elitism and pride.  If God can use an unclean animal like a donkey (Leviticus 11) to get his message across to the disobedient prophet  Baalam (Numbers 22:21-39), He can use anyone, including the non-Elect to proclaim His Kingdom and perform miracles. We give all glory and honor to the Lord because we know that "Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights"  (James 1:17).  May the Lord help us give Him glory in all that we do today.