Exceeding Expectations

Call To Prayer

Title: Exceeding expectations

By: Owusu Clifford S.

Date: 09/07/2022

So he gave them his attention, expecting to receive something from them. 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. Acts 3:5-6 – 5 

There is a popular concept in marketing called managing customer expectations. It states that, when a customer buys a product or a service, he/she will fall into one these three main categories: satisfied, dissatisfied or delighted. Thus when a product’s performance is just as the customer expected before buying the product, the customer is satisfied. Now the two extremes are when the product’s performance either exceeds the customer expectations or falls below the customer expectations. With the former, the customer is delighted and with the latter the customer is dissatisfied.

In Acts 3, just after the baptism of the Holy Spirit in Acts 2, Peter and John, filled with the Holy Spirit, went about doing the work of God. As customary of them, they went to the temple to pray. At the gate of the temple, they met a man who has been lame from birth sitting at the gate and begging for alms. The man seeing Peter and John looked at them hoping to receive money from them, but he rather received his healing on that day through the name of Jesus Christ. Now, there are three lessons that we would want to learn from that event today.

First, the man received something imperishable rather than perishable. Throughout the man’s life and his daily activity of sitting at the gate, all that he had received was money, perishable. Money does not last. If money could save him, he would not be at the gate every day begging for alms. But on that day, when he encountered Jesus Christ, he received something imperishable, something money cannot buy. If you take time to read the whole life story of the man in Acts 3, you realise the immense joy he felt after being healed, singing praises to God all the time. God blew his mind that day. He expected money from Peter and John, but he received a life changing miracle. Today, I pray that may the God of miracles blow your mind and grant you far above what you can expect or think of in Jesus’ name.

Secondly, whatever the circumstance, nothing beats coming to the house of God. The gate of the temple of God was the man’s business place, but it was where he encountered God. Peter and John could have met him anywhere but they met him at the temple. The man’s purpose and motive there was different but that did not change the fact that it was still the house of God, the house of prayer. After his encounter, he moved from the gate of the temple into the temple itself (Acts 3:8), indicating that God blesses us to draw us closer to Himself not away from Him. I pray today that may we find the confidence to be in the house of God irrespective of our current circumstances in Jesus’ name.

The final lesson is that the timings of God are according to Him alone, not man. The man was over forty years old (Acts 4:22) when this miracle happened in his life. He had been suffering and begging even before the birth of Jesus Christ. People may have written him off and he may have lost hope in his situation at that point. But when the time for God to bless and rescue him came, nothing or no one could stop it. Beloved, your situation is still on the working list of God. It might have taken long and you have likely given up, but God is about to step into your case and grant you a miracle in Jesus’ name.

Today, I would urge that we keep faith in God and allow him to work in His own time in our lives. Miracles are on the way. God bless you!!

Prayer Point:

Let us thank God for the answers to our prayers. Let us make personal declarations in faith that God is granting us miracles that will blow our minds and exceed our expectations in Jesus’ name.

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