Dig Through a Roof!

"When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, 'Son, your sins are forgiven.'"

(Mark 2:5)

We Christians are all about prayer. For ourselves, for others, for our leaders, for the world, etc. And yet, at times even the best of us are apt to wonder (at least if we're being completely honest), "Does it really make a difference?"

There's a wonderful story in Mark's gospel about a paralyzed man and his 4 friends. They heard Jesus was in town and wanted to take this guy to be healed. Evidently, everyone else in Capernaum had the same idea - so much so that it was SRO (standing room only) - both inside the house (where Jesus was staying), and outside the front door! Undeterred, they climbed up on the roof, dug a hole through the thatched ceiling, and lowered their paralyzed friend down to Jesus on ropes.

It's a great story about true friendship, ingenuity, and the call to never give up. But that's not what struck me today as I was reading Mark 2. Mark tells us, "When Jesus saw THEIR FAITH..." Meaning, the faith of the 4 friends. Not the faith of the paralyzed man. The friends' faith! Wow! That was enough to move Jesus to heal him.

As a pastor, I don't know why some people are healed and others are not. That's all up to God. (Though I know there are many different kinds of healing beyond merely physical healing: mental, emotional, relational, spiritual, etc. And Jesus told this man that his sins were forgiven before he healed him physically, so there's a double healing!) But this story from Mark 2 calls me to never give up when it comes to praying for others. My faith does matter when it comes to those I'm praying for (and investing my life in!). And YOUR faith matters to all the people you're investing your life (and prayers) in.

So don't be discouraged or lose heart. Dig through a roof!