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Religous: Pressing for the blessing
Pastor Pat Duffin
for South Peace News
One of the cardinal rules the Canadian army pounds into the heads and hearts of the new recruits is, “Don’t give up! Never stop! Never quit! No matter what, keep on going.”
With this attitude anything becomes possible and failure becomes unlikely. Army instructors know that this mindset breeds winners, not losers … over-comers rather than weaklings … it instills a victorious spirit rather than a defeatist mentality.
This same principle has often been proved by many successful people in business, politics, science, sports and other pursuits.
The Bible carries many such examples of people who overcame obstacles and received great blessing for their faith and perseverance. In the Gospel of Mark, the second chapter, we read about a man sick with the palsy, who could not even walk.
Yet he found a way to overcome his impossible condition!
To get to Jesus he enlisted the help of four friends who carried him to where Jesus was staying. But there was such a great crowd gathered around the house they could not even press through the mob. Undeterred, his friends lifted him above the crowd by getting up on the roof of the house. Then they actually dug a hole in the roof so that they could lower the man down into the room and place him at the very feet of Jesus.
When Jesus saw the man, his faith, and the faith of his friends, he was moved with compassion and said, “Son, your sins are forgiven you.”
Immediately, well-meaning religious people raised silent objections, so Jesus paused to deal with their lack of understanding of who He was and the power and authority by which he operated.
We know that Jesus healed the man – what we want to look at here is the role of faith in the heart and mind of the palsied man. He overcame his disability and lack of mobility. He overcame the people who got in his way. He overcame the physical barriers that kept him away from the blessing he sought.
Then there were the philosophical and theological issues that had to be overcome as religious people got in the way. But the palsied man prevailed in his quest and received his blessing.
Faith is not for the faint of heart. A similar example comes from the woman who had been subject to bleeding for 12 years and who had spent all her financial means on physicians but without relief. Determined to receive a healing from Jesus she, too, was undeterred by the mob and pressed through the crowd until she could touch the hem of His garment. Immediately the woman sensed the healing in her body even as Jesus sensed the flow of virtue out from his own.
Blind Bartimaeus, a street beggar, could not see Jesus coming down the Jericho road (Mark 10:45-52), but he could hear the excitement in the crowd as Jesus drew near. Unable to go to Jesus because he could not see, he cried out in a loud voice. Apparently he put on quite a commotion because the people around him tried to shut him up. But Bartimaeus knew what he wanted and would not be silenced. Jesus stopped and asked Bartimaeus, “What do you want?”
In other words, “What can I do for you?”
Bartimaeus overcame the limitations of his disability, overcame the obstacle of distance and people between him and Jesus, overcame the barrier of what other people thought of social convention and public decorum, overcame the people who tried to silence him and isolate him, and he got his blessing because he would let nothing deter him.
What are you desperately hoping for? Perhaps you have an intense desire of your heart or a special need in your life that only God can meet.
What is heavy on your mind? For many people it is wayward children or loved ones caught in all sorts of trouble. Many people are struggling in homes full of turmoil. Some are drowning in addiction or overwhelmed by so many besetting problems they don’t know where to turn for help. Whatever it is, you know it will have to be a God thing if anything is to change for the better.
If you are in that sort of place, then, you are no different than these people who received a miracle from Jesus. You must show the same determination and perseverance with God that these others did. Each of our examples were humble, ordinary people of no special social or religious significance, yet they each were able to obtain Jesus’ attention through intense desire and desperate faith and determined action and consequently received the blessing they sought.
How great and compassionate was the Lord’s response to each of them!
Over and over in the Gospels we see the truth that people don’t come to the Lord all fixed up, but we come to the Lord all mixed up, and He does the fixing. That’s who He is and what He does!
Jesus taught us to pray saying, “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened.” (Matthew 7:7-8 and elsewhere)
The Greek verb is in the present continuous tense meaning – keep asking, keep seeking, keep knocking – and you will receive your answer from God if you pursue it with faith and perseverance. Don’t give up! Give it to Jesus!
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