| Devotional Hours with the Bible |
Chapter 10 |
Page 5 |
Then, after Jesus had forgiven the man’s sins, He performed the other healing also. He made the man rise, take up his bed, and go to his house. He first answered the deepest need, and then, when peace had filled the man’s soul and he was willing now to go home even with his palsy, if that were God’s will, since heaven had come into his heart, then Christ gave him the other gift — healing. The palsy had a mission — it brought the man to the Healer and Savior. When its mission was accomplished it was dismissed as a servant no longer needed. Jesus never causes pain or suffering without some purpose of love. He is not pleased to see us suffer. Every pang of ours goes to His heart. In all our affliction He is afflicted. But He is far too kind to call away the angel of pain before His beneficent work in us is fully produced. The surgeon would be cruel, not kind; who because of the patient’s cries should withdraw the knife when his operation was but half done. God’s love is not of that sort. He is not too gentle to cause us pain and to leave us to suffer unrelieved, even for years, when suffering has yet a mission incomplete in us. Yet the moment pain’s work is finished God sends the messenger away. When this man’s soul was saved, Jesus healed the sickness which had been the messenger of blessing to him and whose ministry was now completed.
Here again the man was called upon for an exercise of faith. Jesus bade him rise, and straightway he took up his bed and walked away before all the people. The command to rise seemed a strange one to give a paralyzed man. He could not lift his head nor walk home. But as we look at the helpless form, he does rise and obey that impossible command. The lesson is that when Christ gives a command, He always gives strength to do it. We have no power in ourselves to do Christ’s will, but as we strive to obey His commands the needed grace flows into our soul. Whatever Christ bids us do, He will by His grace enable us to do it, if we simply go forward in unwavering faith and unquestioning obedience.
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