5:18-20 Then behold, men brought on a bed a man who was paralyzed, whom they sought to bring in and lay before Him. And when they could not find how they might bring him in, because of the crowd, they went up on the housetop and let him down with his bed through the tiling into the midst before Jesus. When He saw their faith, He said to him, "Man, your sins are forgiven you."
This paragraph appears also in other gospels of Matthew and Mark. There are especially more details in Mark, which this paralytic was carried by four men, and because of the crowd, they uncovered the roof where Jesus was and broken through, they let down the bed on which the paralytic was lying.
Carrying a paralytic with a bed is a hard work. Unless a strong purpose this four carry men could give up bringing the paralytic to Jesus at the beginning, not even going up on the housetop and breaking the roof in order to let the paralytic down before Jesus. I think the paralytic on that time did not do anything. Jesus was seeing is the faith of these four carry men and to the end caused the paralytic to be healed. The actions of these carry men could be transferred into the prayer for each other, for these who have less faith, or for do not believe, in hope that God hearing the prayers and forgiving their sins. Of course those people could be changed by good faith, behavior, and love/ the fragrance of Christ and further tune an opportunity to God to let God into their heart.
Jas 5:15-16 And the prayer of faith will save the sick, and the Lord will raise him up. And if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven. Confess your trespasses to one another, and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much.
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I also noticed that the paralytic did nothing but was saved. His salvation does base upon his friends' love. There are still other cases alike.
1) The 'valued' servant of the centurion(Luke7.2)
2) The 'only' son of the widow in Nain(Luke7.12)
3) The 'only' daughter of Jairus(Luke8.12)
The common point of these cases is that the ones who received Jesus's Grace are indeed taken for precious by those who pray for them. Therefore, if we pray for someone we love really deeply, Jesus will listen to us according to our faith.:)
yay! maggie is back :) thanks for sharing, this one hit my heart :) never give up! and thank you for your prayers :)
i like the verse you mentioned in James "Confess your trespasses to one another, and pray for one another, that you may be healed." This takes some trust and humility to do. let us try to do that, if not amongst the big group at church during evening prayer, at least in this reflection forum. i have noticed that the younger ones shy away from sharing much duringn prayer session, i want to encourage you to try and share your prayer requests here with us :). everyone has something that they pray about to God, it's just a matter of sharing or not sharing :). hopefully we can build up the trust between us for a tighter knit spiritual group :). yes, i'm talking about you ;)
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