Today's Scripture Passage: Mark 2
Have you ever desired something so bad, it haunted you?
Life would be perfect if only _____ (you can fill in the blank). And the enemy seems to know what our greatest desires are, for he seems to always be right there to discourage us; "It will never happen." He knows if he can keep us discouraged, he can keep us from praying, and doing all we can to bring our desires to reality!
Have you ever desired something so bad, it haunted you?
Life would be perfect if only _____ (you can fill in the blank). And the enemy seems to know what our greatest desires are, for he seems to always be right there to discourage us; "It will never happen." He knows if he can keep us discouraged, he can keep us from praying, and doing all we can to bring our desires to reality!
The Book of Mark is called the Gospel of action, and Mark 2 opens with exciting news - Jesus is back in town! He's just down the street at the house of Peter’s relative.
But before going further in this passage (Mark 2:1-5) there are two observations that jumped out right away:
- This man was paralyzed - he wasn't able to help himself. (v. 3) There was no way he could get to Jesus by himself. Do you know people who are not able to help themselves?
- He had friends that would stop at nothing to get him to Jesus. (v. 4) Are you that kind of friend?
Faith is seeing light with your heart when all others see darkness.
"Then they came, bringing a paralytic to Him, who had been picked up and was being carried by four men. And when they could not get him to a place in front of Jesus because of the throng, they dug through the roof above Him; and when they had scooped out an opening, they let down the quilt or mat upon which the paralyzed man lay." (Mark 2:3-4)
Have you ever had such determination? I'm sure there were people there attempting to discourage the men! Who cuts a hole in another man's roof?
I had to stop and wonder if I would be so willing to bring another to Jesus.
Which was when the Lord reminded me that I had been once. It was back almost 20 years ago now. My father had such a hard heart and wanted nothing to do with God or His Son. In fact, he'd leave the room if anyone decided to start talking about God.
And so I kept on praying for years asking the Lord if one day He would give me a chance to share with my dad about Jesus and my hope of salvation, and I believed He would since God is faithful even when I'm not.
One night after we were all sleeping I received a call from my mom. My father had gone to the hospital for a regular test, but something had gone terribly wrong and his heart had stopped right there during the procedure. The doctors were able to resuscitate, but he remained in a medically induced comma and it didn't look like he would recover.
With all the confidence in the world, I told my mother emphatically that he would most certainly wake up, because The Lord had promised me a conversation with my dad before he died, and I hung up the phone and planed to travel back to NH to wait for him to wake.
I was there over a week and things were not looking good, yet every time I would pray the Lord would assure me He would wake him up, but as soon as I lifted my head reality would hit until finally the doctors gave us no hope and recommended we turn off life support and let him go... and so we did... and he woke up! Still the doctors gave us no hope and told us he'd pass in the night.
That night The Lord woke me at 3:30 am with such a fervency to pray and pray HARD! The next morning when I finally got a hold of my mother by phone she told me that the hospital had called her at that exact time and told her she should come, but he probably would already be gone by the time she got there. When she arrived, he had revived again and he never went back down. The medical staff all attributed it to nothing short of a miracle, and exactly one week (7 days) after they had turned off my father's life support I got to introduce him to Jesus!
He's home with Him now waiting on the rest of us.
BUT here's what I want you to take with you:
"And when Jesus saw the men's faith [their confidence in God through Him], He said to the paralyzed man, Son, your sins are forgiven [you] and put away [that is, the penalty is remitted, the sense of guilt removed, and you are made upright and in right standing with God]." (Mark 2:5 emphasis mine)
It was the faith of the men that moved Jesus to act, to heal and to forgive his sins! Not the man's faith.
James 5:16b says, "The earnest (heartfelt, continued) prayer of a righteous man makes tremendous power available [dynamic in its working]."Beloved, don't let the enemy, others, or circumstances discourage you. Take them to Jesus! Especially those who can't take themselves!
Blessings,
Sue