Faith of the Lame Man

Paul Thomas

I have a special chair sitting in the back of my office. It once was used to carry people into the building in place of using the “wheel-chair elevator” today. One lesson that this chair reminded me of was the story of the lame man who was dropped through the roof to be healed by Jesus (Mark 2:1-12).

Imagine the great faith that this man must have had that would cause him to do what was necessary to be healed? Romans 10:17 shows us that faith comes about by hearing the Word of God. This man must have heard about the great crowds that came to see Jesus and returned to their homes healed. How many people today, like this lame man, are willing to act on their faith and be healed by Jesus?

Notice also that this lame man had friends that were willing to take him to Jesus to be healed. Have we taken the time to talk to our friends about the gospel? “How then shall they call on Him in whom they have not believed? And how shall they believe in Him of whom they have not heard…?” (Romans 10:14) How grateful would you be if your friend(s) took the time to teach you the gospel and now you also have the hope of eternal life?

Note that the house was filled by people wanting to learn from Jesus. Jesus has the words of eternal life (John 6:68). We need to take every opportunity that we can to study what God wants us to do to be better servants for Him. Attending all the services that we can is a great way to help us accomplish this task (cf: Eph 4:12). Our goal for meeting together with the saints should be to “come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God (Eph 4:13).” We don’t have all the answers. Let us strive to help each other learn and grow in Christ so that we can remain unified against Satan’s traps and shine as lights to the world!