Heart Comparison

Mark 2: And again He entered Capernaum after some days, and it was heard that He was in the house. ² Immediately many gathered together, so that there was no longer room to receive them, not even near the door. And He preached the word to them. ³ Then they came to Him, bringing a paralytic who was carried by four men. ⁴ 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.

⁵ When Jesus saw their faith, He said to the paralytic, “Son, your sins are forgiven you.”

⁶ And some of the scribes were sitting there and reasoning in their hearts, ⁷ “Why does this Man speak blasphemies like this? Who can forgive sins but God alone?”

⁸ But immediately, when Jesus perceived in His spirit that they reasoned thus within themselves, He said to them, “Why do you reason about these things in your hearts? ⁹ Which is easier, to say to the paralytic, ‘Your sins are forgiven you,’ or to say, ‘Arise, take up your bed and walk’? ¹⁰ But that you may know that the Son of Man has power on earth to forgive sins”—He said to the paralytic, ¹¹ “I say to you, arise, take up your bed, and go to your house.” ¹² Immediately he arose, took up the bed, and went out in the presence of them all, so that all were amazed and glorified God, saying, “We never saw anything like this!”

============

Dressed in my best suit, I went off to church. I observed the behaviors of those around me and thought to myself, “Maybe I should act like them so I can fit in.” One deacon was flirting with many of the women another bragged about his car. A person approached me and said “I like your suit.”

• There were times when I did not know how to follow GOD.
• There were times when I was just guessing about GOD by observing others.
• There were times when my faith was based on the opinions of others.

JESUS saw two hearts in this passage. HE saw the heart of faith that believe in HIM so much that friends tore through someone’s roof just to get to HIM. The friends knew HE was the only hope.

On the other hand, JESUS saw the heart of the church leaders criticizing HIM for claiming to be who HE really was and is, namely GOD. They had a picture in their mind of who the Savior should be, but they were dead wrong!

• GOD wants me to follow HIM without boundaries.
• GOD wants me to follow HIM without pretense.
• GOD wants me to follow HIM without trying to get pats on the back from people.

JESUS showed HIS amazing power over human problems. While the paralytic laid there, helpless JESUS leveraged the faith of his friends to heal him, showing everyone that HE in fact is GOD. JESUS wants me to have total faith in HIM.

• Are you facing incredible problems?
• Does it seem like you are paralyzed and cannot get through to GOD?
• Will you simply ask GOD for help and allow HIM to rescue you HIS way?