Prepare for Easter

Saturday, March 7, 2020

About My Father’s Business:

A Lenten Devotional Guide

Just then some men came, carrying a paralyzed man on a bed. They were trying to bring him in and lay him before Jesus; but finding no way to bring him in because of the crowd, they went up on the roof and let him down with his bed through the tiles into the middle of the crowd in front of Jesus. When he saw their faith, he said, “Friend, your sins are forgiven you.” Luke 5:18-20

Wallace and I were in China, teaching at a university way in the hinterlands of Sichuan. We had had the joy of leading a young Chinese student to Christ, and she was an amazing student of the Scripture. Every week, she challenged us with her questions about her reading.

One day she came with tears. Her mother, an unbeliever, had just been diagnosed with a serious cancer and was to have surgery in Beijing. With childlike faith, she explained that if Jesus once healed, he could still do that. How should she pray for her unbelieving mother?

Prayerfully we sought the answer, and God brought us to this passage. The men who brought the invalid were believers. There is no indication that the invalid was a believer. So we took this passage to God, asking that as we brought her mother to lay her at the feet of Jesus he would heal her of this cancer.

Several days later, the student called to say that the surgeons said the tumor proved to not be malignant. “The diagnosis must have been in error,” they said.

I report. You decide.

How often do we bring our unbelieving friends and lay them at the feet of Jesus for healing – spiritually or physically? Often, I hope.

Father, give us faith such as this Chinese student had. Amen

About My Father’s Business:

A Lenten Devotional Guide
prepared for First United Methodist Church of Homosassa, Florida
Spring 2010
by Patience Nave, Christian Education Coordinator