Daily Devotion - Monday - March 15

One day, while Jesus was teaching in someone's house, many people were sitting there. Some of them were Pharisees. Other people were teachers of God's Law. They had come from many villages in Galilee, and from Judea and Jerusalem. The power of the Lord was there with Jesus to make sick people well. Then some men arrived. They were carrying a man on a mat. The man could not walk or move his legs. They tried to get into the house, because they wanted to bring the man to Jesus. But the house was full of people, and they could not get in. So, they carried the man on to the flat roof of the house. Then they made a hole in the roof. After that, they put the mat down through the hole. The man was still lying on it. He came down in the middle of the crowd, in front of Jesus. Jesus saw them. He knew that they believed in him. So he said to the sick man, ‘My friend, I forgive you for the wrong things that you have done.’
Luke 5:17-20
 
Our faith needs to be a "get your hands dirty" kind of faith.
 
We need to know that if we are carrying our fellow Christians or those who are in need of the hope we have, we have to be willing to get our hands dirty.  Picture it, the friends go to visit the man and say, “hey we are going to visit a new speaker and he is touted to be a great healer and a teacher. We want to see if he can help you.”   I'm certain that the man was hesitant.  When one has been through the wringer, they lose hope and sometimes just don't want to try. It's too much.  It's scary to have hope when you have been through so much. Sometimes we get hardened...don't be surprised if those you are trying to bring to Jesus are hesitant. Don't preach to them....just love them. Just be Jesus' hands and feet. 
 
His friends believed before they saw. They knew the talk was that Jesus was different than the others.  Their faith caused them to not lose hope. They didn't want this chance to go away. -Meghan