Are You Confident In Jesus?

One day Jesus was teaching, and Pharisees and teachers of the law were sitting there. They had come from every village of Galilee and from Judea and Jerusalem. And the power of the Lord was with Jesus to heal the sick. Some men came carrying a paralyzed man on a mat and tried to take him into the house to lay him before Jesus. When they could not find a way to do this because of the crowd, they went up on the roof and lowered him on his mat through the tiles into the middle of the crowd, right in front of Jesus. When Jesus saw their faith, he said, “Friend, your sins are forgiven.” – Luke 5:17-20

This morning I was studying the fifth chapter of Luke during my quiet time, specifically the story of a group of men who carried their paralyzed friend to Jesus and lowered Him through the roof so that Jesus could heal him.  

I’ve read this story a few times in the past, but this morning, something I read in a commentary about this particular passage stuck out to me. It said:

“[This group of men] counted on Jesus healing their friend, because it sure would be a lot harder to bring him back up through the roof than lowering him down.”

I had never thought about this before…the idea that this group of friends was absolutely certain Jesus was going to heal their friend. If they could just get him there, if they could just lower him down through the roof, their friend would be healed, and he could walk out of there as if he’d never been paralyzed in the first place. The hard part was over once they got him to Jesus. They were sure of it. Jesus would take it from there.

Talk about an expectant faith. These men were overflowing with confidence in the power of Christ.

So now, with this in mind, let me ask you a question: Do you have that same kind of confidence that Jesus is going to come through for you? 

It’s a tough question, I know. It’s one that hits me in the gut too, because there have been more than a few times when I’ve asked Jesus for something, but doubted that He’d answer me. I’ve questioned whether or not He was listening. And I’ve had very little hope that He was going to come through.

This is why I’m so grateful we have the Bible. We have story after story of people who modeled confident, sincere faith in Christ. These are people we can look to and strive to emulate when our faith has faded and our confidence corroded.

If you’re struggling to believe that Jesus is going to come through for you in some way, my hope is that you’ll remember this story from Luke 5 today. I pray that you strive to have the same kind of confidence in Jesus that this group of men had. As you do, may the Lord restore your hope in Him as you wait expectantly for Him to show up for you in your time of need.