Did you see that? Jesus didn’t immediately reaching out and heal the paralyzed man, instead He said, “Your sins are forgiven”. Jesus healed the need, which was not what the man’s friends had wanted. Obviously Jesus saw his physical need, the need for which his friends brought him to Jesus? Jesus recognized that the man was paralyzed. But He also saw the man’s deeper need: to have his sins forgiven.

 

This is the truth of all of us, we have issues or “needs” to be addressed. We tell ourselves, “What I need is (_______) then my life would be great.” We believe those areas we want fixed will make things right. In a sense these wants become our “gods.” We pray and ask Him to give us what we want, not what we really need. The truth is we don’t always know our greatest need.

 

The great thing about Jesus is, He loves us so much that He will not simply give us what we want. He knows that many of the things we want will not satisfy. They might even be harmful to us.

 

So in His great wisdom and love, He gives us what we need, not necessarily what we want. He gives us relational restoration with the only one who satisfies our every need and who forgives our shortfalls. A couple of verses later (Mark 2:10-11) we see that Jesus turned to the paralyzed man and said, ‘Stand up, pick up your mat, and go home!’ You see the one who meets our needs also has the ability and desire to fulfill our healthy wants!

 

In His Service,

Eric Barnes