RuinedSample

A NEW NORMAL 

This wasn’t an unfamiliar face to Peter because he had entered through this same entrance since he was a boy. Acts 4:22 even tells us this man had been laying there for 40 years. This wasn’t a stranger, this was a normal face. So what made seeing this man different this time than 40 years worth of seeing him? Peter was living the ruined life now! I love how it says in verse 4 that Peter, “fixed his eyes on him.” In other words, he looked at this man with a different set of options. Peter had a choice: He could keep going with his spiritual routine or he could reject normal. With this beggar being a familiar face, Peter could have thought, “Well, he’s always been that way,” but the ruined lifestyle he was living said, “This man can be healed!”

I want to lovingly challenge you to start looking at your city with a different set of options. May you reject normal and start looking at the sick and addicted with a different set of options. When you walk in the ruined life, you begin to look at people and situations with a different set of options. 

I believe the constant lie that’s being whispered to those pursuing the ruined life isn’t, “Don’t pray for the sick” or “Don’t believe for the impossible.” I believe we’re baited today with the lie of “Just be normal. This is the way it’s always been and things will never change. Stop dreaming; you can’t see transformation in your day. Things will always be this way.”

Friend, if God wanted you to be normal, then He should never have sent Jesus. He should never have sent the Holy Spirit, and He should never have equipped you with your Bible! I believe you’re reading this plan because you’re tired of what’s being called normal in your school, city, and region. You’re tired of ‘business as usual’ and the way things are is not okay with you. It’s because the ruined life puts a holy discomfort on the inside of you as you look at people and situations with heaven’s perspective. The ruined ones always look at everything with a different set of options!