Do Your Part

A few days later, when Jesus again entered Capernaum, the people heard that he had come home. So many gathered that there was no room left, not even outside the door, and he preached the word to them. Some men came, bringing to him a paralytic, carried by four of them. Since they could not get him to Jesus because of the crowd, they made an opening in the roof above Jesus and, after digging through it, lowered the mat the paralyzed man was lying on. When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, "Son, your sins are forgiven…

…He said to the paralytic, "I tell you, get up, take your mat and go home " He got up, took his mat and walked out in full view of them all. – Mark 2: 1-12

I have heard many people criticize Christianity for many reasons. But one of the more interesting criticisms is about “faith”. They see folks praying to God for things and look at them like they are fools. The criticism tends to go something like this:

“God isn’t Santa Claus. You can’t just ask for what you want and expect to get it.”

“You have to work for what you want. You can’t just sit back and expect things to fall into your lap.”

“God isn’t concerned with you. He has bigger issues to deal with.”

True…

But the funny thing about this is that the Bible doesn’t support this notion of “Santa Claus on High”. Whenever you see Jesus do something to help others, he always does it as a response to faith by that person or another individual.

The story above is a great example. When you break it down, there were a series of actions taken.

First, the four friends carried their paralyzed homie to where Jesus was because they BELIEVED that Jesus could heal them.

Carried.

When they get there they see that it is super crowded.

Drats…

But then they come up with a plan. They lift their friend to the roof, dig a hole in the roof, and then lower homie down in front of Jesus.

Good gracious!

They made the journey, arrived at the destination, found a roadblock in their way, climbed over it, and devised a way to get to Jesus.

How many of us do this with our dreams? Have we done all that we can? Have we tried to maneuver around obstacles or just given up when we see them?

Do we have the audacity to break down doors, dig through roofs, all in the pursuit of our passion?

Faith is displayed by action.

When we go after the dreams we have in our hearts we usually need some sort of big break. We need the key to unlock the door that will open up the blessing.

God provides that key.

However… what is required of us is to do what we can to get ourselves in front of that door.

We do the possible. God does the rest.

Today’s Reading: Leviticus 26-27; Mark 2