5×5×5 Bible Plan
Read: Mark 2
Meditation: Mark 2:3-5
Then they came to Him, bringing a paralytic who was carried by four men. And when they could not come near Him because of the crowd, they uncovered the roof where He was. So when they had broken through, they let down the bed on which the paralytic was lying. When Jesus saw their faith, He said to the paralytic, “Son, your sins are forgiven you.”
Shift Your Focus… I am not recommending that you knock over the pews to get to the altar for prayer 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.
There is a story told about a proud young man who came to the great philosopher, Socrates, asking for the knowledge necessary to be wise. He said, “Great Socrates, I come to you for knowledge.” Socrates, who recognized a disingenuous and arrogant numskull when he saw one, led the young man through the city streets to the sea, where they walked chest deep into water.
Then Socrates asked, “What do you want?”
“Knowledge, O wise Socrates,” the young man said with a smile. So Socrates put his strong hands on the man’s shoulders and pushed him under. Thirty seconds later Socrates let him up.
Again Socrates asked, “What do you want?”
“Wisdom, great and wise Socrates,” the young man sputtered. So Socrates shoved him under again. Thirty seconds passed…thirty-five…forty. Finally when Socrates let him up, the man was gasping.
“What do you want, young man?” the venerable old teacher asked again.
Between heavy, heaving breaths the man wheezed, “Knowledge, O wise and wonderful…”
Before he could finish, Socrates pounded him under again…forty seconds passed…fifty…a minute. “What do you want?”
“Air! …I need air!” he gasped.
And then Socrates said, “When you want knowledge as you have just wanted air, then you will have knowledge.”
When we want God like we want air—when we long for him as desperately as we long for the breath of life itself—we shall have God.
“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
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