CONCERT OF PRAYER

Pray Week 772

“First Things First”

Mark 2:3-12 (ESV) And they came, bringing to him a paralytic carried by four men. And when they could not get near him because of the crowd, they removed the roof above him, and when they had made an opening, they let down the bed on which the paralytic lay.

——————————————————————————-

Imagine yourself as one of the four men in this Gospel account. Your friend is paralyzed and in a desperate state. He needs to be cured and the doctors can do nothing for him. You have heard about the miraculous healings that Jesus has been doing and along with three other friends, you covenant together to bring your friend to Jesus in hope that He will heal him. …at once his fame spread everywhere throughout all the surrounding region of Galilee – Mark 1:28

The four of you struggle to carry your friend on his mat for some distance. Your arms ache. You feel like you are going to lose your grip and you have to stop and rest a few times before continuing on. Yet you persevere. You press beyond the pain and difficulty in hope for what Jesus will do.

Then you arrive only to find no way into the house. The crowd fills the house and spills out the doorway and windows openings. You appeal to the people to make an opening for your friend but your words only solidify the wall of people. In a last desperate measure you find a ladder and rope and summoning renewed strength you hoist your friend on his mat up onto the flat roof of the house. You locate the area in the house where Jesus is and identifying the area between the timbers you and your  friends begin digging.

The roof is around 3 inches thick of compressed layers of a lime-mud plaster, reeds, chalk, earth and ash. The crowd is now shouting at you as debris is falling down inside the house. This provides an adrenalin rush and you work much faster to get the job done before you are stopped. There is an added benefit in that the falling debris clears a spot beneath you right in front of Jesus.

Exhausted, sweaty and dirty, you lower your friend down on his mat directly in front of Jesus and you hear Jesus say “My son, your sins are forgiven.”

Wait a minute! We brought him here to be healed, not have his sins forgiven! All that work, and his sins are forgiven? The Scribes and Pharisees are also upset by what Jesus said but for different reasons. Then you hear Jesus speak again and it all becomes clear.

But that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins”—he said to the paralytic—“I say to you, rise, pick up your bed, and go home”… so that they were all amazed and glorified God – Mark 2:10

This Gospel account clearly shows the first things first priority of God’s Kingdom. All things physical are temporary and secondary to the spiritual which is eternal. The paralytic’s body eventually died but because his sins were forgiven he has eternal life with Jesus. Note also that all is done to glorify God. The man born blind, the paralytic, Paul’s thorn in the flesh – all were allowed by God to bring Him glory and to further His kingdom.

Sometimes we may labor and wrestle in prayer to the point of exhaustion seeking the physical when we should be seeking first a personal relationship with God through the forgiveness of sins which only comes through Jesus Christ.

May you know the peace, joy, and power of the abiding presence of God as you set your heart’s priority order to seek first His kingdom and His righteousness.

Close in prayer, thanksgiving & dedication of your work to the glory of God.