FRIENDS OF FAITH

• DAY 214
• FAITH FILE: THE LAME MAN AND FRIENDS
• SCRIPTURES: MARK 2:1-4;11-12

And again He entered Capernaum after some days, and it was heard that He was in the house. Immediately many gathered together, so that there was no longer room to receive them, not even near the door. And He preached the word to them. Then they came to Him, bringing a paralytic who was carried by four men. And when they could not come near Him because of the crowd, they uncovered the roof where He was. So when they had broken through, they let down the bed on which the paralytic was lying. When Jesus saw their faith, He said to the paralytic, “Son, your sins are forgiven you.” But that you may know that the Son of Man has power on earth to forgive sins”—He said to the paralytic, “I say to you, arise, take up your bed, and go to your house.” Immediately he arose, took up the bed, and went out in the presence of them all, so that all were amazed and glorified God, saying, “We never saw anything like this!”

The people that you have around you are very important, their faith can bring you a miracle. And we have an example of that in our text today. Four men brought their paralytic friend to Jesus. The Bible does not tell us the relationship these men had with the paralytic. However, looking at the situation, you can infer that these four men had to have some kind of relationship with this paralytic man, whether they were friends, high school mates, or family members, we do not know. But I call them the Real Ride or Die crew. Because

When these men brought this paralytic man to Jesus, there was no room for him. Jesus was completely surrounded and they could not find a way to get their friend to Him. They came for help, help was close but still far away. It’s like showing up at a store to buy something you actually need and seeing a sold-out sign or seeing that the store is closed. In that moment you could get discouraged and just head on home but not these men. That’s why I assume them to be his friends.

Friends Who Stick Close

They decided that they will take this man to Jesus no matter what it takes. They examined everywhere and realized that the roof was the best option. They proceeded to commit an offense for their friend. They opened the roof and let Him down. If that’s not ride or die, I don’t know what else is. Think of what was happening below them as they opened the roof. Did no one think to stop them? Did the whole congregation pause and watch in amazement? Did they perchance pour mud on my lord and Saviour? This was a grand scene, too hard to miss and no ordinary acquaintance will go this length. And where I would have seen a crime, Jesus saw an act of faith.

Beloved, you have to be as intentional as this paralytic man to surround himself with people that do not have the same condition as he does. There is wisdom in choosing friends who have strength in the place where you have a weakness. But beyond that, you also want to cultivate relationships and friendships that will carry you when you cannot carry yourself. Because there are times when life will present situations to you that will leave you all but paralyzed. It will affect you so much that you will feel helpless. Life will present you with situations that you will feel paralyzed to find a solution for. You can’t seem to find help in your head and your capacity cannot carry you. It is that time that you will need your community to carry you.

Start Making Friends

If you have followed this devotional then you know that this is something I say repeatedly. I do so because it is a non-negotiable requirement. And in this world of phones and self-love and personal space, we are making “lone wolf” the norm and setting ourselves up to be prey. We are forgetting that there is safety in numbers and we are not meant to do life alone. Making friends is one of the social phobias we have today and this is an attack on community.

Imagine that this paralyzed man was alone and on his own or he didn’t have people who could go any length for him? would he have made it into the bible? would he even have had a miracle? Your friends of faith are like your war team, you face life together in Christ. You need a support system, period! Create them intentionally.

Sometimes it is difficult for us to form relationships because we believe the lies in our minds. nobody understands us, people cannot be trusted, you don’t really know people, and so on. We hold on to hurt and let it hinder us from being vulnerable, so we don’t have true friendships. But we forget that we placed too many expectations on the relationship and the person. They became center instead of God and that imbalance will always birth betrayal. Beloved, you cannot stay isolated as a person of courage. You have to be courageous enough to build friends. If you don’t know how, start by joining my online community on Telegram.

So how about you pray and ask God to give you wisdom and to surround you with people that can go to war with you when necessary? And I hope you know what God’s word says about being friends, that he that wants to have friends must first make himself friendly.

Shalom.