When
Jesus returned to Capernaum several days later, the news spread quickly that he
was back home. Soon the house where he was staying was so packed with
visitors that there was no more room, even outside the door. While he was
preaching God's word to them, four
men arrived carrying a paralyzed man on a mat. They
couldn't bring him to Jesus because of the crowd, so they dug a hole through
the roof above his head. Then they lowered the man on his mat, right down in
front of Jesus. Seeing their faith, Jesus said
to the paralyzed man, "My child, your sins are
forgiven." -- Mark 2: 1-5 (NLT)
The paralyzed man and his friends tried to
press in like the woman with the issue of blood but they were unable to break
through the crowds. They refused to give up however. They refused to be limited
by the apparent defeat. Picture this now. They climb up on the roof, with their
paralyzed friend! They dug a hole in the roof and proceed to lower their friend
on his mat until he is right before the Savior! That is an overcoming faith!
That is a radical way to seek the Lord! That is what is sometimes required from
us. That is seeking Him with all of our heart and soul. The sad truth is that
we give up far too easily in prayer and in seeking God. We live in a microwave
society where we expect everything done yesterday. Then we try to hold God to
those same standards even though the Bible tells us that His ways are so far
above our ways and that a day in our lifetime is like a thousand years to Him.
Not only do we tend to not press in, we barely press at all. We certainly do
not seek to climb the roof to lower our needs before the Lord. You see this
paralyzed man had plenty of obstacles in his life. He had plenty of obstacles
that day. He could have very easily given up and given in. But instead, he and
his friends persevered and found a way around the obstacles separating them
from Christ. Likewise, we too will have many obstacles at times between us and
God. The world is very good at offering up distractions. It offers up a level
of busyness that is not as busy as we make it out to be. I have watched
friendships fall apart because people convince themselves they are too busy to
call. While that can be devastating, it is even worse when you let it disrupt
your relationship with Christ. We spend so much time on the temporal things of
this world and so little on the eternal things of God.
The last example for today comes from when
Jesus visited a region known as
Jesus told
her, "First I
should feed the children--my own family, the Jews. It isn't right to take food
from the children and throw it to the dogs." She
replied, "That's true, Lord, but even the dogs under the table are allowed to
eat the scraps from the children's plates." "Good answer!" he said. "Now go home, for the demon has
left your daughter." And when she arrived home, she found her little girl lying
quietly in bed, and the demon was gone. -- Mark 7: 27-30 (NLT)
What do we see here in this story? With Bartimaeus we saw that we need to ignore the critics and cast decorum aside when seeking the Lord; possibly even needing to raise our voices and shout a little bit! With the woman with the issue of blood we saw that we have to turn away from the solutions the world offers us and press in to touch Jesus. The paralyzed man with his friends taught us that no matter how many obstacles the world and the enemy throws up at us we need to persevere and find ways to overcome them when seeking the Lord. This last story however, highlights the lynchpin for all of them -- humility.
You rescue
the humble, but you humiliate the proud. You light a lamp for me. The Lord , my God, lights up my darkness. -- Psalm 18: 27-28 (NLT)
In our darkness beloved. In our wilderness, valley
or desert. Whatever Christianese euphemism we want to use. When we find
ourselves in the very captivity the key verses spoke about and we need to seek
the Almighty God we must always remember that it starts with humility. There is
far too much arrogance and pride in modern Christianity. Too much of a man
focus. This woman approaches Christ with a very real and personal problem. Her
daughter is possessed by a demon. The initial answer given by Jesus is not
exactly flattering, is it? She has two choices at this point. She can be
offended and prideful and walk away with her demon possessed daughter no better
off or she can humble herself before the Master and beg for the mercy she
needed. Likewise, we too can face similar problems when we seek the Lord. The
initial answer may not be something we like or wanted to hear. Sometimes we
have to ask twice. Sometimes we have to persist in prayer. The answer is not
always delivered in our time line. David waited for over a decade to ascend to
the throne of
Where are we today beloved? Where does this Word
find you? Are you in need of the Master's touch? To restore your sight, to heal
you of your infirmities or to help you to walk straight again. Do we allow the
voices around us talk us out of seeking the Lord with all of our heart and
soul? Do we dare to shout out to the Son of David -- have mercy on me! Are we pressing
in towards Jesus or are we way too casual in how we seek Him. Do we believe
with great expectancy that just a brush with the shadow of Jesus could cure
everything that ails us! Do we look at obstacles as the very thing that will
prevent us from finding God when we need Him most or as the impetus to climb to
the roof in order to find Him! It doesn't matter if we are Jew or Gentile. Man
or woman. From the region of
Reverend Anthony Wade -- October 8, 2012
