“…and in the wilderness where you saw how the Lord your God carried you, as a man carries his son, in all the way that you went until you came to this place.”
There is a time to be carried and a time to carry. In the wilderness, the Lord carried His people “as a man carries his son.” Forty years later, on the border of the promised land, God commanded the people to carry themselves. They were ordered to occupy and take possession of their inheritance. God would go before them into the promised land. He would fight on their behalf (Deuteronomy 3.22). But the Israelites must now muster faith, carry themselves into the battle, and possess the land “flowing with milk and honey” (Deuteronomy 6.3).
Fourteen hundred years later, a paralytic was carried on a stretcher by his friends and lowered through a hole in the roof of the house where Jesus was preaching. When Jesus saw their faith, He forgave the crippled man’s sins and healed him. “Immediately he... picked up what he had been lying on, and went home glorifying God” (Luke 5.25). For the paralytic, there was a time to be carried, and then a time to carry himself.
The crippled guy needed his stretcher until he didn’t need it any more. But he did not leave his stretcher behind. Rather, the paralytic “picked up what he had been lying on.” Why would a former cripple pick up the stretcher he no longer needed? Perhaps he did need it... to carry other cripples. There is a time to be carried and a time to carry.
I was carried to Jesus by those who cared. I must now care enough to carry others there.
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3 comments:
And a person might ask what did Jesus sacrifice in healing the man? It cost him nothing.
Yet the full story shows that what it cost Jesus was his life. Not to scare anyone off here; I am not saying that we need give up our life, but that we give as if it was our life.
I can recall the old me, the one who did not ask for help the one who offered only assistance that was easy (non-sacrificial).
Giving as God woul dlike us to requires giving within the whole scope of the teachings on giving. Sacrificially, with a cheerful heart, of our best and even unto the last, in love.
Giving at this level can only be done after your heart has been prepared through trial, effort, failure, practice, success, growth and the Spirit.
I am in that, fail, try again, succeed, growth and leaning on the Spirit cycle. I have learned to ask for help; most of the time.
Amen!
All we have to do is get on our knees and ask for God's help. God Bless You.
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