³²Now as Peter was traveling through all those regions, he came down also to the saints who lived at Lydda. ³³There he found a man named Aeneas, who had been bedridden eight years, for he was paralyzed. ³⁴Peter said to him, “Aeneas, Jesus Christ heals you; get up and make your bed.” Immediately he got up. ³⁵And all who lived at Lydda and Sharon saw him, and they turned to the Lord.

Skeptics question the historical veracity of such miraculous stories as we see here. Luke, as a careful chronicler, gives specifics, the kind of data for which historians today look to establish the credibility of a written record. Myths often leave out details like specific locations and time parameters. Luke records the specific locations, which can be verified with other historical records. He also affirms the genuineness of the problem, indicating “eight years” that the man was paralyzed and bedridden. This was not a psycho-somatic healing story. The response of the entire town supports the idea that everyone knew the man to have had a real problem, and that the healing was not some hocus pocus mind-over-matter trick. They were so convinced a genuine healing had taken place, that they responded en masse to the gospel message and turned to the Lord.

All who hold that the Bible is the inspired and inerrant Word of God believe this story happened as Luke described it; it was a genuine, bonafide, verifiable miracle! We are reminded that when Jesus healed people, He warned them not to banter it about but to go and show themselves to a priest. For example, Luke records, “And [Jesus] ordered [the healed leper] to tell no one, ‘But go and show yourself to the priest and make an offering for your cleansing, just as Moses commanded, as a testimony to them’” (Luke 5:14). In the case at Lydda, the people did not hear from second- or third-hand testimony, but they all “saw him,” that is, they saw the man healed. This is not the stuff of urban myth, where a story is told and retold, and in the process morphs into something beyond the original event. They all saw, and they believed.

Can miracles like this happen today? Of course! God has not changed. Why else do we pray for the sick? God can heal those who have been paralyzed, make the blind to see, and raise the dead. But we must not confuse the genuine work of God with “Christian urban myths” propagated by those desperately trying to prove God is real. Christians suffer spiritual shipwreck, not when they don’t have enough faith to see miracles, but when they don’t have faith to accept that God has a better plan than the miracle they desire (Heb. 11:1).

Lord, I believe that You can and do work miracles in my life. Strengthen my faith when I don’t see them.