Friends

 When Jesus saw their faith, He said to the paralytic, "Son, your sins are forgiven."

Mark 2:5

The people you surround yourself with should be able to bless you as you bless them. None of your relationships should be parasitic, where one party keeps giving with nothing in return. Trust me, it is exhausting.

However, there are times when all a person can do is receive.

In the beginning of Mark 2, we find four people lugging this paralytic to Jesus so that He can bless him. When they arrive to where Jesus is, the house is packed with people who want to hear His preaching. So much so that there is no way to replicate the parting of the Red Sea with this crowd, meaning that this guy won't be getting his blessings if they try to go through the door.

Instead of giving up, these men decide to carry this heavy guy up some stairs to the roof and proceed to go through the gravel and create a hole in order to lower the paralytic into the middle of the house, bypassing the crowd and getting him to Jesus.

Now those are some awesome friends... cause strangers wouldn't have done that.

So Jesus, in the midst of His teaching, looks up and sees a paralytic coming through the roof. And He also sees the effort his friends went through in order to make this happen. He sees their faith (they knew that Jesus could heal their friend and went through high waters to get him to Him) and blesses the paralytic, who did nothing. He just had some really good friends.

Usually, I'm worried that God only blesses me because of my association with other people. I've become resentful about receiving help because the word help insinuates, in my mind, weakness. 

And I don't want to be weak, so I don't want your help, I can get my blessings myself.

As if I can earn anything that God decides to give me... And I can't... So who am I to despise the way that God chooses to bless me?

A brat to be honest... A self-righteous, self-sufficient brat.

My friends' faith and blessings cannot rob my worth found in Christ. I'm trying so hard to accept that truth because I am so good at the comparison game. There have been too many times that I've berated myself because of what's going on in my friends' lives and when I focus on that I lose my joy and I'm a horrible person to be around.

Because I forget things I should be happy about...

• My friends carry me when I'm down. 
• My friends help me break strongholds in my life. 
• My friends hold me accountable to my beliefs and my dreams. 
• My friends pick up my slack. 
• Most importantly, my friends always point me back to Jesus. 

They always remind me of His love and His promises. They never let me forget, when I am paralyzed by fear, who my God is.

I'm blessed to have such friends as these and I pray that I become the type of friend who holds it down for someone who feels as if life is too hard.

I'll break down any door, wall, roof (shoot, the whole house) to show that Jesus is truly there amongst all the chaos.

Because He is.