Leave A Mark - Bold Faith

Paul Harvey once said, “If you don’t live it, you don’t believe it.”

You see, faith is never something just to be talked about - instead you Leave A Mark by living it. There’s a story in Mark 2 that demonstrates this principle. Verse 5 states, “Seeing their faith...” but how do you see faith? Faith is not in the visible realm.

This passage records the story of four men who brought their friend to Jesus. He was a paralytic, which literally means to be "loosed on one side." In essence, his arms hung on his side and his legs were as limp as spaghetti. Now if he was going to get in to the presence of Jesus, somebody was going to have to take him.

But when they got near the house, they saw that there was no room to get through. The house was full. People jammed the doorways. Kids were sitting in the windows. Nobody could move. It was standing room only and this man could not stand.

The four friends would not be stopped, they decided to go to the roof and let their friend down into the presence of Jesus.  According to some scholars, the roof was usually made of beams about 3 feet apart. These beams would be filled with twigs, then packed with clay and covered with dirt. If that were the case, it would have been an easy matter to dig between the beams without doing much damage to the house.

The paralyzed man was lowered down to Jesus, and when Jesus “saw their faith”, he both healed and forgave the paralytic.

The action of bringing their friend showed their faith. It made their faith visible to Jesus and to any others who saw it.

Our actions will make our faith visible to the watching world. A visible faith is a faith that works. 

What does Jesus see in you?  Who are you bringing to the presence of Jesus? Is there anything bold about your faith?   

Let's LEAVE A MARK!