Read: Mark 2
Soon the house where Jesus was staying was so packed with visitors that there was no more room, even outside the door. While he was preaching God’s word to them, four men arrived carrying a paralyzed man on a mat. They couldn’t bring him to Jesus because of the crowd, so they dug a hole 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 2:2-5)
I am not recommending that you knock over the pews to get to the altar or anything, but I wonder what you would be willing to do just to touch Jesus—either for yourself or someone you care about very deeply. I personally like things a little more calm and controlled than that, but there was just something about a person’s holy desperation that seemed to move Jesus to action:
- The blind man named Bartimaeus who wouldn’t shut up until Jesus healed him (Mark 10:46-52)
- The Canaanite woman who wouldn’t back down just to get Jesus to deliver her demonized daughter (Matthew 15:22-28)
- The woman with the issue of blood that pressed through the crowd just to touch Jesus (Mark 5:24-34)
- The guy named Zacchaeus who shimmied up a tree just to see Jesus (Luke 19:1-10)
So how desperate is your faith? Perhaps that’s the reason God doesn’t seem to do as much in your life, and mine, as we read about in Scripture or hear about in third-world Christianity. When we become truly desperate for God, maybe we will see God move as he did in days of old.
“The stiff and wooden quality about our religious lives is a result of our lack of holy desire. Complacency is a deadly foe of all spiritual growth. Acute desire must be present or there will be no manifestation of Christ to His people. He waits to be wanted.” ~A.W. Tozer
What If God Took Over?
Are you desperate for God? If you would like to have the kind of desperation that the men in Mark 2 had, a good place to begin would be to simply go to God and ask him to give you that kind of holy desire.
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