And Peter directed his gaze at him, as did John, and said, “Look at us.”
-Acts 3:4
That seems like just a passing verse in the middle of this story. This guy who’s lame from birth. And who had been carried every day to the gate of the temple. And he sees Peter and John about to go into the temple as he’s sitting there. He asks if they would give him something. But then it says in Acts 3:4, “Peter directed his gaze at him, as did John, and said, ‘Look at us.'” There’s an intensity here and intentionality when they looked at this one man who is in need.
Acts 3:4 reminds us to not lose sight of those in need.
As I read that and I see that kind of intensity and intentionality focused in on one, I think about my own life. I see multitudes of people in need around the world. I talk all the time about 2.8 billion people who have never heard the gospel. This morning I was praying for the Fulani people of Cameroon. Five million of them have little to no access to the gospel. I think about millions of people who are unreached by the gospel, millions of people who are suffering in different ways in the world, and it’s helpful to be reminded of the magnitude, just millions upon millions of people.
If I’m not careful, I can get so focused on the big picture that I lose sight of the one person who’s in need right in front of me. And that’s why Acts 3:4 encourages me.
Acts 3:4 reminds us to love individuals.
Those who are passionate about reaching the many, are passionate about reaching the one. I want to be part of affecting the many in a sense in my life, but that really comes down to fundamentally being passionate about reaching the one in my life.
I just think, “As I go through my day-to-day, God give me an intensity, an intentionality, to focus on the one person in need around me,” wherever that may be, whatever that may look like today, may we have our eyes opened in such a way that we gaze at them who are in need around us and say, “How can I love that person? How can I serve that person? How can I encourage that person?” I just want to encourage you amidst all the mass of needs around us in the world, let’s never neglect the need of the one that God brings into our path on a regular day-by-day basis.
This verse leads us to pray for eyes to see those in front of us.
Let me pray toward that end. God, I pray that you give me your eyes to see the one in front of me today. To see the person who you are giving me an opportunity to love, to serve, to care for, to reach out to in this way. I pray the same for those who are listening to this. That you would give us a good and right focus on individual people around us today. That we might live for your glory, not just in a broad ambiguous way. But for the spread of your grace and your glory in individual lives around us today. In Jesus’s name, we pray. Amen.
David Platt serves as a Lead Pastor for McLean Bible Church. He is also the Founder of Radical, an organization that makes Jesus known among the nations.
David received his B.A. from the University of Georgia and M.Div., Th.M., and Ph.D. from New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary. Some of his published works include Radical, Radical Together, Follow Me, Counter Culture, Something Needs to Change, Don’t Hold Back, and How to Read the Bible.
He lives in the Washington, D.C. metro area with his wife and children.
