Longing For Something

Lesson Plan for Youth and Adult


He had been born lame.  He had never known what it was like to take a walk with his friends, or to run and play as a child.  He was outcast because of the law in those days.  Everyday someone would take him and lay him at the gate which was called Beautiful.  He watched the people walking back and forth through that gate going into the temple to worship, yet he was never allowed because of his disability.  He sat at that gate begging alms from anyone who would listen and stop to help.  Then came the day, it would seem to him just like every other day of his life, but oh he didn’t realize that everything was going to be different in just a matter of seconds!  He was about to have an experience like never before would probably never experience again.  No, this was no ordinary day, he was about to receive something much more valuable than silver or gold, he was about to get a lot more than he could have ever asked for.  His life was about to change and he would never be the same.

Acts 3:1-10  “3 Now Peter and John went up together into the temple at the hour of prayer, being the ninth hour.

Asking for alms, day after day, longing for enough to survive.  He needed something that the world couldn’t give him.  Hearing a commentary on this very scripture in the Bible it’s stated that this man was to remain nameless to us and perhaps that’s so that we can put ourselves in that place.  We are all longing and begging for something.  We all have a void in our lives that can only be filled with JESUS CHRIST, yet so many times for so long people don’t even realize what they are begging for.  This man, at the gate called Beautiful, he was asking for alms, but what he really needed was legs.  He needed to be healed, however he understood that no one could give him that, so he opted to beg and long for the next best thing.  Every day, over and over as he begged over and over…”alms, alms” not daring to ask for what he really longed for, to be healed.  He lay at the gate called Beautiful which was an entrance into the temple.  It was the perfect place to receive alms, because as people went there to read the Torah, and to Worship, also giving would be the third of the three pillars of Judaism.  I dare to say that he had never asked anyone before to give him new legs, so he settled for the lesser thing.

What do you need today?  What is your life lacking that you feel like there is no hope, so you just settle for a lesser thing.  Are you depending on someone to give you that thing that only JESUS can?  Some people expect it from their spouse, from the children, from the parents from friends and relationships suffer and are broken because human beings cannot be to anyone what JESUS is.  Sometimes we don’t even realize we are begging for something but it shows up in our actions, our depressions, our compulsions, and even in our immorality.  Why do we do the things we do, even the sinful things over and over and over.  Being in a pit of sin, habitually sinning is a cry for something.  We look for what we need in people and in places that cannot give us what we need.  What if we just stopped and asked ourselves why we continue to do the things we do.  What are we begging and longing for?  What if we stopped and asked The ONE that can fulfill us, the ONE that can give us what we need…would we dare?

What if we stopped looking for that thing we need in a bottle, in a pill, in a relationship, and we started seeking The LORD for it?  Our lives would be changed.  JESUS said…



It is said, and it’s so true that every person is born with a GOD shaped hole in our souls and only HE can fill it.  We could stop settling for less and we could stop unfairly expecting human beings to give to us what only JESUS can if we would only seek HIM and ask!  Somewhere we have believed the lie that there are certain things that we simply cannot ask GOD for because it’s just too much, but that’s not true.  We can ask HIM for anything, HE is able to do all things, there is nothing too hard for HIM.  When we pray according to HIS will, HE will give us the desire of our hearts if we are delighting in HIM!  That doesn’t mean that HE will just give us everything we want, but HE will supply our need and HE will give us everything that is in accordance to HIS will. 


Everything you will ever need and everything you could ever want can be fulfilled in JESUS CHRIST!  HE is the answer to every problem that we could ever face.

In reading the scriptures in the next chapter, Acts 4 verse 22 we find that this man who was healed was above forty years old.  He had been lame for all those years and never allowed to go into the temple because of his condition.  {Leviticus 21:17-20}  perhaps he had also been begging for acceptance. 

Along came Peter and John, both filled with The Holy Ghost and the man asked them for alms, and Peter told him, I don’t have silver and gold, but I do have what you need in the name of JESUS CHRIST of Nazareth rise up and walk!  He took him by the hand and lifted him up by faith and immediately his ankle bones received strength and he was healed by the power of GOD!  I wonder what that sensation was like, to leap and praise GOD for the first time, to enter into the temple for the first time knowing that you were accepted.  What a sight it must have been!  JESUS CHRIST changes lives, and you and I who are filled with The Holy Spirit should have so much of CHRIST in us that we can share HIM with all those who are begging for HIM but don’t even realize that is what they need.

What are you longing for, what are you begging for?  You may not even realize what you need, but if you will humble yourself down and seek The LORD on the matter, HE will reveal it to you and He will make you complete as only HE can do if you will invite HIM to do the work that HE longs to do in your life. 
Notice with me as we close this lesson in Acts 3 verse 11

Acts 3:11 “11 And as the lame man which was healed held Peter and John, all the people ran together unto them in the porch that is called Solomon's, greatly wondering.”

When the lame man which was healed held Peter and John.  Wow.  We can understand how he would want to cling to them, the men who had been used by GOD for his healing, but in reading on we see that Peter sets everyone straight about who did the actual healing. 


Peter quickly let them know that this man was healed because of JESUS CHRIST, by the power of GOD, it wasn’t by their own strength.  Sometimes, we can find ourselves clinging to a person or a thing that GOD used to help us or to help us to heal and we fail to realize that it wasn’t the person or the thing, they were just tools that GOD used to make us whole again.  We try to cling to the person or the thing that we associate with making us feel better.  We must realize that it is GOD!  Yes, HE uses people to show HIS love and to help us, but ultimately that healing that wholeness comes from HIM alone, not in another human being.  We must give HIM all the glory because HE is the only ONE that truly deserves all praise and Glory because HE is all powerful! 

Again I urge you to ask yourself what it is that you need and if you don’t know then seek The LORD on the matter and then get into HIS word and trust and obey what it says.  HE can make you whole and HE is the only one that can fulfill every aspect of your life.  He longs for you, and for you to realize that truly your soul longs for HIM too.  HE is everything that is good and perfect and you will never go wrong with you seek HIM, trust HIM, and let HIM do what only HE can do for you!  You are loved. 


Dear Righteous, Heavenly FATHER…

I thank You once again for who You are and for being all that we could ever need.  Thank You for knowing what we need and for being able to fulfill us in ways we can’t even imagine.  FATHER, today I ask that You show us what we are longing for, what we are begging for and help us to understand that only You can make us whole.  Help us to seek You and to know that nothing is too hard for You.  Break those chains of the enemy and help us to not believe those lies that we can never be free, because we know that You have told us in Your Word that we can be free in CHRIST JESUS Your Son!  Thank You for loving us and for being so patient with us.  I pray today that You help and bless each person reading this message that You have given and that You let them feel Your arms of love and help them to know that They can trust You and help them to seek You with all their hearts and know that You are the answer to every problem that we could ever be faced with.  Strengthen Your children and bring those who don’t know Your Son JESUS CHRIST into a personal relationship with You through HIM.  Help them to believe and to trust in what HE has done on the cross and in the power of HIS resurrection.  It’s in the Mighty and Precious name of The LORD JESUS CHRIST that I pray and ask these things, with all thanksgiving Amen.  Thank YOU LORD! 


September 9, 2018