Monday December 11th: True Friendship

Tell your friends about Jesus…

Luke 5:17-26.

The Gospel today is about the spiritual power of friendship. The friends of the paralytic man knew ‘the power of the Lord was behind [Jesus’] works of healing’ and they wanted their friend to encounter Jesus. They saw that the circumstances, however, made it impossible for this to be fulfilled so they went to great lengths to get their friend before Jesus. The passage tells us that Jesus saw their faith and gave his forgiveness, blessings and healing to the friend. What lengths are you willing to go through, to have your friends encounter Jesus?
Jesus was able to identify the thing in the life of the paralytic that was keeping him back from healing – the thing he had been lying on. He freed him from that. The freedom and grace the paralytic received from Jesus caused him to praise God as he was filled with awe – all this, because his friends brought him to Jesus. Tell your friends about Jesus. Go to lengths to allow them to experience the healing touch of Jesus!