10 OCT 23 Tuesday: A Closer Walk Devotional
“Seeing their faith, Jesus said to the paralyzed man, Be encouraged, my child! Your sins are forgiven. So I will prove to you that the Son of Man has the authority on earth to forgive sins. Then Jesus turned to the paralyzed man and said, Stand up, pick up your mat, and go home!” Matthew 9:2b, 6
Hope is an interesting thing. Just a little bit can cause faith to explode and move ordinary people to do extraordinary things. This is one of the reasons why Jesus used the mustard seed as a metaphor for our faith. Something so small can have a tremendous impact not only on us but on everyone around us.
The passage today is one of the many stories of hope that Jesus reveals to us in the gospels. Can you imagine the guy in this story, who was paralyzed? To this day, even with all our technology, there is no cure for this. People are reading this who can relate to this situation. Maybe you have arthritis, cancer, or heart issues, or are confined to a wheelchair. Some feelings are unique to your suffering, but there is a search for even a small seed of hope.
Jesus is our hope. He is our hope for wholeness and restoration physically, mentally, and spiritually. As you read this short passage in Matthew, you find that Jesus doesn’t address what we think is the most pressing need, paralysis. Jesus starts with the one that we don’t see or don’t want to admit is our biggest issue, sin. In this life, we might live to 100, but then we die. Afterward comes the judgment, where God puts in the video of our life and goes through it with us.
How will measure up as we stand before a holy and perfect God? It is too late for confession and forgiveness because we are in the sentencing phase. How do we become clean of our sins? We can’t do enough good deeds to outweigh our bad. (All the world’s religions) We can only achieve this as a gift given freely by God through his Son. This is the beauty of this story, only Jesus has the authority to forgive sins. He is ready, are you?
Have you put your hope in Jesus and received forgiveness?
Reading Plan: Psalm 121, 122, 123; 2 Kings 22:1-13; 1 Cor. 11:2,-17-22; Matt 9:1-8
No comments:
Post a Comment