(The following is the February 11 devotional from my Next Step Devotions book. Before reading it, I suggest you read Mark 2 and pay close attention to verses 1-5.)
Do you realize that your faith can be vital to someone else’s physical or spiritual healing? One example is when Jesus healed a person with paralysis. The paralytic’s friends lowered him through a hole they cut in a home’s roof, where Jesus gathered one day with a crowd. “Seeing their faith, Jesus told the paralytic, ‘Son, your sins are forgiven’” (v. 5). Did you catch that? “Seeing their faith.” We can assume the paralytic had faith, or Jesus would not likely have healed him, but the faith of those who brought the man to Jesus made a difference. That is encouraging.
Christians should regularly introduce friends to Jesus through conversation, prayer, acts of kindness, and love like the paralytic’s friends demonstrated. It may be that God responds to such acts of faith on our part by working in those for whom we pray and act.
Our prayers and actions should not only be for physical healing. We should regularly pray that our unsaved friends repent, trust Christ, and experience the spiritual healing they need. Praying for their salvation is as necessary as a verbal witness since only God can save them. It helps to keep a prayer list of unsaved persons, not just the physically sick. The Lord must think it odd that we spend more time praying to keep the saints out of Heaven by praying for their physical healing than to get sinners into Heaven through salvation. Keep your prayer list populated with both categories of people since Jesus can provide physical and spiritual healing.
Our heavenly Father is still in the business of answering prayers of faith, especially those that benefit others. Take your friends, family, and others to Jesus in prayer.
Next Step:
Create a prayer list if you do not already have one. Group the list by categories, such as those with physical needs, those needing salvation, and other areas of concern. Pray for them daily. Document answers to prayer when they occur as a record of God’s kindness.
