Faith that takes roofs off

And when he saw their faith. Luke 5:20

A man was paralyzed upon a bed, and had been that way for a long time. His friends, knowing that Jesus was in town, took him to Jesus so that their friend might be healed by him. However, when they arrived at the place where Jesus was at, the crowds were so great that they could not get in. There was no way they could force themselves through the door to get to the Lord.

At this point, the man's friends came up with an alternative plan, rather unorthodox, and one that could not have made the owner of the house very happy! For they went up the stairs to the roof and proceeded to rip off the tiles to create a hole in the roof so that they could let their friend down through the roof to where Jesus was.

That is where we come to the words quoted above: "And when he saw their faith, he said unto him, Man, thy sins are forgiven thee." Our Lord then healed him, so that this man went out of the house forgiven and walking. He was spiritually cleansed and physically strengthened. What a blessing!

But the point I want to make here is this: faith finds a way. Faith is not always about passively waiting for God to do something. Sometimes we do have to do that. When the Red Sea is before you and Pharaoh's army behind you, there is nothing to do at that point but to see what God will do. But in general, faith does not stay in a passive stance. Faith works (Gal. 5:6). It is confidence in Christ that moves a person to do something for him rather than to be paralyzed by fear.

And this convicts me. For too often I justify what is only sinful passivity by claiming I am just waiting on God to do something. Instead, let us take the roof off if necessary so that we may get people to Jesus. That is faith! Let us, who are so often "little-faiths" be like this man's friends and have this kind of confidence in God.