Standing In The Gap

As a part of our Summer reading plan at the Adel Assembly of God we are reading Mark 1-5. My heart was quickened when I read in Mark 2:5 "When Jesus saw their faith, . . . " Here we have a group of friends who have taken one of their friends who is paralyzed to Jesus to be healed.

How amazing is that! Their friend could not get to Jesus and they interceded for him and took him to Jesus. They were standing in the gap for their friend. They were interceding for him. We know from reading the scripture that the first thing Jesus did was to forgive this man for his sins which seems a little strange if you are the friends. It was not the sins of their friend that brought them to Jesus to heal but the body of their dear friend. Jesus recognized the sin which holds us back from receiving all that he has for us. The bonus was that this man received the physical healing too.

Often we are so focused on the physical that we neglect the spiritual. BUT Jesus didn't.