Daily Devotional · Acts 3:6
Silver and Gold I Do Not Have
Reflection
"Then Peter said, 'Silver or gold I do not have, but what I do have I give you. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, walk.' Taking him by the right hand, he helped him up, and instantly the man's feet and ankles became strong." The man had been lame from birth — not an acquired disability, not an injury, but a condition present since the beginning. He was carried daily to the temple gate called Beautiful to beg. He had been positioned there for years. He asked Peter and John for money. Peter looked straight at him. "Look at us!" Not a casual glance — a full, direct, personal regard. He saw the man as a man, not as a situation to manage. "Silver or gold I do not have." The honesty is striking. Peter did not perform charity he didn't have. He told the truth about what he lacked. And then: "But what I do have I give you." Something different. Something better. "In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, walk." The name is the authority. Peter was not acting in his own power; he was acting as an agent of the risen Christ. The name was not a formula — it was a delegation. He took him by the right hand and helped him up. The words were followed by action: physical contact, a helping hand, practical participation in the person's standing. The man stood. He walked. He jumped. He entered the temple, walking and jumping and praising God. The people who saw him knew who he was — the man who sat at Beautiful Gate. Now he was leaping at the altar.
Background
The Beautiful Gate was one of the main entrances to the temple complex, likely the Nicanor Gate — made of Corinthian bronze and considered the most beautiful of all the temple gates. A beggar at this gate would have seen the most traffic and the most wealthy worshippers. The healing of the lame man at the Beautiful Gate mirrors and fulfills Isaiah 35:6: "Then will the lame leap like a deer."
Truth
Peter could not give what he didn't have, and he knew it. But he gave what he did have — not money, but access to the name of the One who heals. The limitation was real; the resource was greater. What you cannot give, acknowledge. What you have been given in Christ, offer.
Application
Where are you withholding from others because you're measuring what you have by the wrong currency — comparing your resources to someone else's, feeling inadequate because you can't give what they're asking for? What do you actually have, in Christ, to give? Silver and gold may be limited, but the Name is available to every believer.