Are You Carrying Your Friends?
Luke 5:17 to 26 is the great story of Jesus healing a paralyzed man. Jesus was teaching and there were Pharisees and teachers of the law sitting around listening, and we read in verse 18 “Some men came carrying a paralyzed man on a mat and tried to take him into the house to lay before Jesus. When they could not find a way to do this because of the crowd, they went up on the roof and lowered him on his mat through the tiles into the middle of the crowd, right in front of Jesus.” And then it says, “When Jesus saw their faith, he said, ‘Friend, your sins are forgiven.”
I love this picture of these men taking their friend to Jesus. Their friend couldn't go to Jesus himself. And so they took up the challenge and picked him up and carried him to Jesus.
Carrying People to God in Prayer
For me, this is such a picture of intercessory prayer. We pray on behalf of others. We bring them to Jesus. This is how I picture what I'm doing if I'm praying for other people who are sick or who are struggling, or if I'm praying for my family or the members of my church or whoever it might be. In my mind, I am putting them on a mat and carrying them and lowering them in front of Jesus and saying, “I bring this person to you, Lord.”
It's important that we bring each other to God in prayer. In fact, I'm going to attach a song to this message, which is a song I wrote when I was in hospital for one of the other patients in the ward with me who was struggling. And I started praying for him. And then the song came out. (The song, by the way, will be released on my “Songs from the Hospital Bed” album later this year.) For me, this was my way of just bringing this person to God like these people did, bringing their friend to Jesus.
Will You Pray?
Will you pray for those in need? Will you lift them up and then lower them down in front of Jesus and ask Him for blessing and for healing and for help in their lives? I need the prayers of people. I know it. In fact, I saw a WhatsApp status the other day where somebody said, “Whoever is praying for me, please don't stop. It's helping! It's working!” And I thought that was great.
Pray, pray for people and bring them before Jesus. Like these men did and see how God works in those people's lives when you do this.
