Luke 5:18-19 – 18 Some men came carrying a paralytic on a mat and tried to take him into the house to lay him before Jesus. 19 When they could not find a way to do this because of the crowd, they went up on the roof and lowered him on his mat through the tiles into the middle of the crowd, right in front of Jesus.
These men acted in faith. They wouldn’t have gone to the trouble of lowering the paralyzed man
down from the roof if they didn’t have faith that Jesus would heal him.
Do we act on faith today? Do you think Jesus wanted this man to cast his burden onto Him or do you
think Jesus wanted him to work it out himself?
Of course the Lord wants us to trust Him and cast our cares and prayers onto Him. Yet what do most
of us do? Try to do it all ourselves and our way. What kind of faith is that?
Independence away from the Lord is how we get into trouble. It’s a good way to drift into the darkness.
Does God like faith from people?
In the verses above Jesus ends it by saying:
Luke 5:24-26 – ………….. He said to the paralyzed man, “I tell you, get up, take your mat and go home.” 25 Immediately he stood up in front of them, took what he had been lying on and went home praising God. 26 Everyone was amazed and gave praise to God. They were filled with awe and said, “We have seen remarkable things today.”
There is much more to these verses but I wanted to concentrate on the faith portion instead of the battle on the forgiveness of sins with the Pharisees.
The Lord isn’t looking for an independent self reliant group of people. He is looking for a loving submissive bunch of servants.
Tomorrow we will stay on the theme of faith.