Faith in Action

eDevotion

Encouragement for your daily walk with God 

“Actions speak louder than words.” How many times have you heard that? Probably a lot, yet there is the ring of truth in its message. It certainly is true of your faith. How you act on your faith speaks volumes about it. Real faith takes risks. Real faith will stop at nothing in order to achieve its objective. An example of that is found in Mark’s Gospel when Jesus healed a leper, who didn’t let anything stand is his way of getting to Him [Mark 1:40-45].

Then there were the friends of a paralytic man, another remarkable example of what real faith is willing to do in order to reach its goal. It happened in Capernaum, where Jesus and the disciples were staying after ministering around Galilee. 

By now, many people had heard about Jesus and they crowded around the door of the house He was staying in to hear Him preach. This crowd presented a problem for the men who had gone there, carrying the paralytic on a cot. Their way to Jesus was blocked. 

It would have been easy for them to go away, hoping that Jesus would be available another time. But these guys were determined to get their friend to Jesus right then, while He was presently with them. They made their way to the roof of the house. The typical 1st century house in this area would have had a flat roof made of mud. Hence, when they “made an opening," they dug a hole to lower their friend down [the literal meaning of the Greek word exorusso, to dig out, or dig through]. 

One commentator pointed out that these men would never have kept going unless they put their faith into action. In this case, they didn’t give up when access to Jesus was closed on all sides. They were so sure of Jesus’ ability that they would stop at nothing to get to Him. 

May we pursue Jesus, our Lord and Savior, with such fervent faith!

They couldn’t bring him to Jesus because of the crowd, so they made an opening through the roof above His head. Then they lowered the man on his mat, right down in front of Jesus. Seeing their faith, Jesus said to the paralyzed man, “My child, your sins are forgiven.” Mark 2:4-5