Who Gets the Credit

February 15

(Acts 3:11-16 NIV) “While the beggar held on to Peter and John, all the people were astonished and came running to them in the place called Solomon's Colonnade. {12} When Peter saw this, he said to them: "Men of Israel, why does this surprise you? Why do you stare at us as if by our own power or godliness we had made this man walk? {13} The God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, the God of our fathers, has glorified his servant Jesus. You handed him over to be killed, and you disowned him before Pilate, though he had decided to let him go. {14} You disowned the Holy and Righteous One and asked that a murderer be released to you. {15} You killed the author of life, but God raised him from the dead. We are witnesses of this. {16} By faith in the name of Jesus, this man whom you see and know was made strong. It is Jesus' name and the faith that comes through him that has given this complete healing to him, as you can all see.”

(John 20:30-31 NIV) "Jesus did many other miraculous signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not recorded in this book. {31} But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name."

After Peter and John brought healing to the crippled man, the crowd began to treat them as superheroes with great power. It was a test for them. They had to decide whether to accept the glory for themselves, or give glory to God. They passed the test. They declared that faith in the name of Jesus caused the miraculous healing. Human beings are interesting. We excel at holding grudges. We blame God for the tragedies, disasters, and calamities in our lives. Some are still angry at God for something that happened decades ago. But when blessing comes our way, or something good happens in our life, we are prone to explaining it away as coincidence, or worse yet, to taking credit for it ourselves. We chalk it up to being godly, or smart, or just plain lucky. In this world, God gets most of the blame, but not much of the credit. Be different, Christian. Give God glory in all things. -- Friar Tuck’s Word of the Day