Scripture
Now for some time a man named Simon had practiced sorcery in the city and amazed all the people of Samaria. He boasted that he was someone great, and all the people, both high and low, gave him their attention and exclaimed, “This man is rightly called the Great Power of God.”
Acts 8:9-10 NIV
Observation
Simon used to be a famous sorcerer in the city of Samaria.
Later, when Philip proclaimed the good news there, Simon believed in Jesus and got baptized.
Apparently, he had a genuine conversion, as the text in Acts 8:13 shows that he was astonished by the signs and miracles Philip performed. He followed Philip everywhere.
But when the disciples came to pray for the people, and they received the Holy Spirit, Simon asked to have that kind of ability too, offering the disciples money for it.
Application
1. **Don’t seek for the spotlight:** Simon’s past in receiving glory from men got into his heart.
2. **I am who God says I am:** in his past, he “boasted” to be someone great and even people said he was the “Great Power of God”. I can not base my identity in who I think I am, neither who others think I am.
3. **Don’t try to have what is not yours:** that was the sin on Satan, to desire a position that wasn’t his, to try to get the glory from God to himself. And that is a strategy the devil still use today: making us desiring to be someone else, to have what is from others.
4. **The extraordinary can blind people from the truth**: the miracles and wonders, the supernatural, really attracts people to God, as they see how powerful the God Almighty is, and that He can bring the change they think they need to their lives. But if that curiosity does not bring people the desire to truly know God, they will always looking for God’s Hands but not God’s heart. And as Peter said Acts 8:23 “For I see that you are full of bitterness and captive to sin.”
Prayer
Heavenly Father, I pray that my eyes won’t be looking for what is not mine to take, that I will not boast in my past nor trying to be someone I want to be, but fully pursuing to follow your plans and who you designed me to be. In Jesus’ name, I pray.
Topics: #identity #envy