Have you ever been so sick or burdened that you could hardly pray for yourself?\u00a0 You just felt so weak, spiritually, to seek God for help?\u00a0 Perhaps you were undergoing a serious operation and would be under anesthesia, thereby rendering you unable to pray.\u00a0 Maybe someone reading has been in a coma or treated with medications that kept you unresponsive.\u00a0 Possibly, you or your family have been dealt a situation that seemed hopeless.<\/p>\n
In your helplessness, you were dependent on others praying for you and taking care of your most simplest needs.\u00a0 Your own faith may have wavered in times of despair.\u00a0 Finding yourself in the middle of a situation and being overwhelmed, you may not be able to clearly see how God can bring a good ending.<\/p>\n
A friend of mine posted a reminder recently about how important our faith in God and our prayers are for those in our individual circles.\u00a0 The thought has stayed with me and then the Lord began showing me several verses to illustrate our responsibility to uphold others in prayers.<\/p>\n
Let’s take a look at the book of Mark, Chapter two.\u00a0 The man, sick of the palsy, may have succumbed to the fact that he would always be helpless.\u00a0 Even if there was a cure for his paralysis, how would he be able to obtain the treatment?\u00a0 He could do nothing for himself.<\/p>\n
His four friends, on the other hand, were not about to allow their disabled comrade to sink into a dismal abyss of despair!\u00a0 They had faith that there would be a way and they were willing to keep trying.\u00a0 Their faith would not allow them to give up!<\/p>\n
Hearing of Jesus coming to Capernaum, the four friends were encouraged and excited!\u00a0 If anyone could heal their disabled friend, it would be Jesus!\u00a0 Think about the preparations they might have done.\u00a0 They were going to Jesus! They probably took time to bathe their friend, put clean clothes on him, bandaged any sores, and combed his hair.\u00a0 Perhaps a new stretcher would be appropriate.\u00a0 He needed something clean and that smelled nice!\u00a0 And, let’s not forget that, these men, themselves, probably cleaned up in preparation to meet the Saviour and ask for His healing!<\/p>\n
Oh!\u00a0 The disappointment the man must have felt in his heart when they arrived and the crowd was so thick!\u00a0 There would be no chance of him being carried to Jesus for the healing he had hoped for.\u00a0 But, his dedicated companions had FAITH!!!! There\u00a0had<\/u>\u00a0to be a way!\u00a0 “Necessity is the mother of invention!”\u00a0 They had faith that God would heal their friend through Jesus Christ.\u00a0 There was no backing down!\u00a0 There\u00a0would<\/u>\u00a0be a way!<\/p>\n
What would you have done in a similar situation?\u00a0 If traffic is blocked, I have taken some winding side-streets.\u00a0 If I have accidentally locked myself out of my house, I would look for an unlocked window or maybe try a credit card to slide into the door. But, would you ever plow through the street shoulder or sidewalk to reach your destination or dismantle your door frame to get inside your house?\u00a0 Not likely!<\/p>\n
I am not sure how the roof of Jesus’ meeting place was constructed.\u00a0 Was it slabs of rock?\u00a0 Was it a thatched roof of straw?\u00a0 Was it clay tiles?\u00a0 This\u00a0scripture does not tell us what this roof was constructed of; only to say,\u00a0 that the men “uncovered” it and broke it up.<\/p>\n
Think about it!\u00a0 This is not their house.\u00a0 Probably, they may not have even known the owner.\u00a0 They could certainly be arrested and\u00a0 even put to death.\u00a0 Faith will do a lot more and go a lot farther than we would rationally think or do.\u00a0 Most of us would have thrown up our hands and given up when we realized that gaining entrance into the building would be impossible.\u00a0 Surely, the man sick of the palsy had already given up and was resigned to the attempt being a failure.\u00a0 But–<\/p>\n
“…Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.”<\/em> Hebrews 11:1<\/span><\/p>\n Now, many of us might waver in our faith at this point!\u00a0 We tried, but it just wasn’t possible.\u00a0 Or, we second-guess ourselves. Maybe this just wasn’t God’s will!<\/p>\n “But let him ask in faith, nothing wavering.\u00a0 For he that wavereth is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed.”<\/em>\u00a0 James 1:6.<\/span><\/p>\n God rewarded their efforts.<\/p>\n “When Jesus saw their faith, he said unto the sick of the palsy, Son, thy sins be forgiven thee.”<\/em> Mark 2:5.<\/span><\/p>\n Let us interject here that Jesus was more concerned about the man’s spiritual sickness!\u00a0 Were his friends concerned about his spiritual well-being or just that their friend could walk and function again?\u00a0 The Bible does not share this.<\/p>\n Of course, there are always skeptics in a crowd and someone wanting to downgrade the positive and focus on the negative!\u00a0 Jesus was not new to this sort of thing!\u00a0 Further, in verses 8-11 in this chapter, Jesus addresses those skeptical scribes!<\/p>\n “And immediately when Jesus perceived in his spirit that they so reasoned within themselves, he said unto them, Why reason ye these things in your heart?\u00a0\u00a0<\/strong>Whether is it easier to say to the sick of the palsy, Thy sins be forgiven thee; or to say, Arise, and take up thy bed, and walk?\u00a0\u00a0<\/strong>But that ye may know that the Son of man hath power on earth to forgive sins, (he saith to the sick of the palsy,)\u00a0\u00a0<\/strong>I say unto thee, Arise, and take up thy bed, and go thy way into thine house.”<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n Why was this man healed?\u00a0 He could do nothing for himself\u00a0BUT<\/u>, his friends had faith!<\/p>\n “When Jesus saw their faith, he said unto the sick of the palsy, Son, thy sins be forgiven thee.”\u00a0<\/em> Mark 2:5.<\/span><\/p>\n Are you breaking the link of FAITH?\u00a0 Do you have friends depending on\u00a0your<\/u>\u00a0faith to sustain them right now?\u00a0 Jesus healed this man-not because of\u00a0his<\/u>\u00a0faith but because of the faith of his friends!\u00a0 We could especially apply this as we pray for lost loved ones to be saved!<\/p>\n My friend is going through a battle of cancer right now.\u00a0 At times, she is just so weak, tired, and exhausted to pray for herself.\u00a0 But, this sweet lady has a “cloud of witnesses” praying daily for her!\u00a0 This gives her encouragement and strength!\u00a0 It is that mesh of prayer support that keeps her going.<\/p>\n What happens to a mesh bag when a weak thread breaks?\u00a0 The hole gets bigger and bigger until the mesh is no longer able to contain what its original purpose was!\u00a0 Just like a link in a chain, every\u00a0component is needed!\u00a0 Your daily prayers of faith are seen by God!<\/p>\n It may be YOUR prayers for a special friend or family member that God uses to help that person!\u00a0 It isn’t that the person needing help is so great or significant (we are all just sinners before God!) but that a praying friend is making intercession for them!\u00a0 Will\u00a0YOU<\/u>\u00a0be that intercessory friend?<\/p>\n Concluding in a post-script, do you pray, faithfully, asking God to provide all that the Howells are in need of?\u00a0 There might be a very special, unspoken need one of them might have and it will be YOUR prayer of faith that God answers!\u00a0 Mrs. Kim and Elizabeth are preparing to travel.\u00a0 Bro. Lewis will have more burdens to care for while his wife is gone.\u00a0 Elizabeth will have many needs that she isn’t even aware of yet! \u00a0Don’t just pray but step out in your faith and ask God what you can do to be a tangible blessing to them!<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Have you ever been so sick or burdened that you could hardly pray for yourself?\u00a0 You just felt so weak, spiritually, to seek God for … <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":401,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0},"categories":[3],"tags":[26,25,45,397,174,44,246,191,56],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sonbeamsandshadows.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1303"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sonbeamsandshadows.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sonbeamsandshadows.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sonbeamsandshadows.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sonbeamsandshadows.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1303"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/sonbeamsandshadows.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1303\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1305,"href":"https:\/\/sonbeamsandshadows.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1303\/revisions\/1305"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sonbeamsandshadows.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/401"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sonbeamsandshadows.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1303"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sonbeamsandshadows.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1303"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sonbeamsandshadows.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1303"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}