Luke 5:18-20 (CEV) And some people came carrying a man on a mat because he could not walk. They tried to take him inside the house and put him in front of Jesus. But because of the crowd, they could not get him to Jesus. So they went up on the roof, where they removed some tiles and let the mat down in the middle of the room.
Recently I heard someone reading aloud the story of the paralytic brought to Jesus while he was speaking in a house. The story tells how the paralytic's friends were so desperate to present him to Jesus for healing that they took the man up on the roof, removed some tiles, and let him down into the room.
The particular translation contained a verb I had not heard in the story before: "Dismantled." The men dismantled the roof's tiles to lower their friend to Jesus.
I wonder, what do we need to dismantle in order to get closer to Jesus?
Perhaps we need to dismantle our attitude. We may think we don't need Jesus in our life so much and that we're doing just fine. Our attitude might prevent us from experiencing the profound blessings of a daily walk with Jesus.
Maybe our habits and routines get in the way. We have some interest in Jesus, but we don't find the time for church attendance or daily prayer. We might not realize that our hearts are gradually growing colder as we avoid Jesus.
Or we might be hesitant, doubtful, fearing what Jesus might require from us. We don't go all-in, unwilling to give our hearts and lives to Jesus and doing all that he commands us to do.
Through one or more of these challenges, we've built a roof over Jesus, containing him, and we stay on the outside, looking in and probably wondering why Jesus doesn't seem to have any effect on us.
Let us consider what tiles need to be dismantled so we too can reach Jesus, entering his glorious presence and experiencing his healing power in our lives.
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