What do you do when illness or tragedy or troubles or anxiety or difficulties strike someone you know? It could be a friend, or family member, or even a person you hear about! Let me tell you a story about a man with a debilitating illness and how his friends helped him in a time of his great need…
Right now I’m especially thinking about all the sickness, death, loss and angst from Covid!
Last night we heard that 13 family members of a young friend’s family have Covid and three have passed. My heart hurts for this dear young man and his family!
What can we do? How can we help?
I’ve been studying the book of Mark this summer. One of my favorite stories begins in chapter 2! I think it has lots of say to us during these unusual and hard days.
This story struck me deep in my heart when I first read it years ago and to this day it is still on my mind.
Our story takes place in Capernaum, a town right on the seashore of the Sea of Galilee.
This little fishing town was the home base of Jesus during his three-year public ministry.
Jesus, by the time of this story, had reached rock star status in all of Israel and the surrounding areas for his healing and teaching.
On one particular day, he was at the home of Peter and a great, huge crowd gathered. Jesus was inside “speaking the word”.
While Jesus was preaching four men came to the house bringing their paralyzed friend on a pallet. They had heard that Jesus was able to heal people.
Upon arriving at the house they couldn’t get close to the door because of the great crowds that came to hear Jesus. What happened next was astonishing!
Those four men were not deterred by the crowds.
Listen to what they did…
AND BEING UNABLE TO GET TO HIM (JESUS) BECAUSE OF THE CROWD, THEY REMOVED THE ROOF ABOVE HIM; AND WHEN THEY HAD DUG AN OPENING, THEY LET DOWN THE PALLET ON WHICH THE PARALYTIC WAS LYING. MARK 2:4
Can you just see it? Can you see these men scrambling up onto the flat roof of this ancient, seaside home?
The roof was probably made of a cross-section of rough timber beams covered with a thick coating of mud plaster. Grass would actually grow on the top of the roof. The rooves were sturdy enough for people to sleep on then and also worship there.
I wonder if Jesus and the multitudes inside could hear all the commotion above as the men dissembled the roof?
As the men ripped off the grass and dug the dried mud with their hands to make an opening large enough for a man and his pallet to be lowered through it did much of the debris fall on Jesus and the people inside?
What was the reaction of the all the people?
I love to think of bible stories and their real-life details!
Because of the tenacious action of the four men, the paralytic had his audience with Jesus and was healed! And because of the healing, the once paralyzed man walked away praising God! What an amazing story!
But here is what touches me so deeply…
These men carried their friend in need to the only One who could do something about his condition. They brought their paralyzed friend to Jesus.
Every time we pray for someone… a friend, a precious family member or just someone in need we hear about we are carrying them to Jesus also!
Can relate to the men who dug through that mud roof to get to Jesus. They must have cared for the paralytic and they would not let a crowded, blocked door stand in their way!
It is a privilege to carry someone, by intercessory prayer, to the Throne of Grace!
Hebrews 4: 14-16 says…
Since then we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son Of God, let us hold fast to our confession. For we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but One who has been tempted in all things as we are, yet without sin.
LET US THEREFORE, COME BOLDLY TO THE THRONE OF OUR GRACIOUS GOD THAT WE MAY FIND MERCY AND GRACE IN OUR TIME OF NEED.
What the men in our story did for their parlayed friend was very bold!
And James 5:16 says…
Therefore, confess your sins to one another, and pray for one another so that you may be healed. The effective prayers of a righteous man can accomplish much.
Talking to God about others in need is the biggest and the best thing we can do for them!
Pray and continue to pray.
Visually see yourself on top of that roof, digging away the mud so you can lower your friend, or family member or someone in need carefully down to lovingly place them at the feet of Jesus! And keep doing it!
Don’t give up!!!
What if the friends of the paralyzed man stopped taking him to Jesus because they could not get near the door? The man would have never been healed!
They would let nothing stop them! Not the crowds, not the roof, nothing!
Don’t underestimate the power of prayer! Don’t underestimate that your prayer and the faith you have in the ONE you are praying to can literally move mountains!
Believe in God! Believe in Jesus, the Healer, the Son of God, and His miracle ability! Look for His nail-pierced hands to move in the situation you are praying about. Expect miracles!!!
It may not be the miracle you want, but He is faithful to answer prayer in His perfect way!
Trust God! trust Him!
Who are you bringing to Jesus on a pallet today?
Scripture to remember…
LET US THEREFORE, COME BOLDLY TO THE THRONE OF OUR GRACIOUS GOD THAT WE MAY FIND MERCY AND GRACE IN OUR TIME OF NEED.
You might also like these posts about prayer:
HOW TO PRAY IN DIFFICULT TIMES
Dear Yvonne,
Thank you so much for your wonderful reminder that we serve a great God who cares about us and those around us. We only have to bring ourselves and others to him. During these difficult days we are living in, I find myself in the Word, listening to praise and worship music, and stepping out in to nature to stay sane. God has used each of these to bring encouragement to me. Finding encouragement then helps me reach out to others, whether through phone calls, texts, letters, or deeds of kindness. God bless you and yours!
I love the way you stand up for the LORD!
I have an open concept home and your article on how rooms need to flow together was wonderful to read….. And to find out that I have done everything right… Thanks to you….. I look forward to reading your articles every day!
Yay, Candice!!!!
“Who are you bringing to Jesus on a pallet today?”
It is a very good question to start with. I am sure all of us always pray for our families first, then maybe our friends and workmates. I also try to do the same for those I may bump into every day that might have problems, illnesses or suffer from deep sadness. Also for those who sometimes don’t understand what’s currently happening around us, i.e, this Covid 19, our forgetting God most of the times, our soul repair every now and then to become a bit stronger in our faith. I include myself in this last lot.
And now I wish you a wonderful week ahead to be as happy and loving as you can.
Big hug once again to you and your family and to those in this blog too,
Charo
Thanks, Charo! God bless you and your family!
I’m so sorry to hear about your friends! I will pray for that family as well as you. Thank you so much for the scriptures…we can’t stop praying!
May God continue to bless you,
Angela
Thanks Yvonne. This is the second beautiful sermon I heard today.
Last week a dear friend had a stroke. While I have been praying for him, this puts things in a new perceptive. Visualizing myself carrying him to Jesus as those men did in Mark’s Gospel.
I also love your line “expect miracles”, the miracles of God’s perfect will.
God bless you for your teaching 🙏
Yes, the “miracles” of God’s perfect will!
Wow.. what a visual! Lowering the loved one we’re praying for through the roof down to Jesus! Yvonne, I like how you describe visualizing the scriptures as we read them to get a sense of being right there to help us understand them better. God bless and protect you and your loved ones. Also praying for the family you know affected by the corona virus. Take care ☀️
Inspirational post. I feel for the family. I wished people would take this virus seriously. I am not saying that family didn’t but one of our neighbors is taking his family to one of the hot spot states for a vacation. Can you believe it. They are in their 30s. I told my Hubby that we will have to be careful when they get back because we both have health problems.
I was taught that despair is the greatest of all sins because if we are truly distraught and have given up hope, then we’ve given up on God. Yet if I am honest, that is how I feel now. I live in a constant state of anxiety, unable to pray anymore.
It’s like living in a birdcage, we cannot go anywhere or do anything. There’s only so much I can do in my home. Trips have been canceled, large sums of money lost not to mention the social unrest. Our lives are being torn down around us. I sympathize with your friend and his loss of loved ones. But I feel so estranged from all my beliefs and spiritual well-being.
No matter what Margo, God has a plan for our lives and it is perfect! Jesus said in this world we will have troubles but HE has overcome the world! And we can be overcomers too! Not like the world but remember our end (really no end, just eternity) is better than our beginning! Trust God and stay close to Him by pouring over His word!!!
THank you so much. We really need to share this message…