HAND ME DOWN
What it means to be CHOSEN
June 26th, 2023
Colossians 3:12-14, ‘So, chosen by God for this new life of love, dress in the wardrobe God picked out for you: compassion, kindness, humility, quiet strength, discipline. Be even-tempered, content with second place, quick to forgive an offense. Forgive as quickly and completely as the Master forgave you. And regardless of what else you put on, wear love. It’s your basic, all-purpose garment. Never be without it.’ (MSG)
BORROWED BELIEF
I wonder what it would be like to be handed down, especially through a ceiling tile, and set in front of Jesus, the Healer, the Forgiver of sins. I am enthralled by the nature in which this crippled man met Jesus—to be loved and cared for by friends, whose belief and compassion was enough to carry him to the feet of Jesus for healing. That their faith would be so substantial to not only heal him, but it brought forgiveness to him as well. It is significant that—had it been me—in my paralytic state, too disabled to hope, too broken to believe, my friends’ care would transport me to a place where I could be set free.
We find this very event in the New Testament, in Luke 5:18-20, and it says, ‘Some men came to Jesus, carrying a paraplegic man on a stretcher. They attempted to bring him in past the crowd to set him down in front of Jesus. But because there were so many people crowding the door, they had no way to bring him inside. So, they crawled onto the roof, dug their way through the roof tiles, and lowered the man, stretcher and all, into the middle of the crowd, right in front of Jesus. Seeing their demonstration of their faith, Jesus said to the paraplegic man, “My friend, your sins are forgiven!”’ (TPT)
Have you ever had someone believe enough for you when you had lost all anticipation? When your endurance lay famished and frayed and gasping for breath, deteriorating and decaying on the floor, too battered and worn to lift your head or utter another prayer? When someone moved in and offered to carry you because you were too immobilized to take another step? Have you ever had someone lend their strength to you so you could hope for healing, cheer you on so you could round the final bend?
These men, the four friends of the paraplegic, gave to him several gifts he had no ability to receive on his own. He never could have made it to Jesus for healing or for forgiveness of sin because he was confined to a stretcher even, completely immobilized. They carried him; they went the extra mile—to a rooftop even! they lowered him; they believed for him. And in so doing, he was set free, and he was given healing from everything that bound him and kept him hopeless and weakened and disabled.
We all need someone whose faith we can borrow when ours isn’t big or strong enough. When ours is busted, a hope we can bum from someone who cares. I am reminded that I need to be that person in someone else’s life also; that when I see someone who is hobbling along on broken belief and about to come undone, I have extra to spare, to give away, to lend. We never know what we might cause to happen in another person’s heart if we just take a chance and share the hope we have been given.
you are His REMNANT
