July 2 Prayer

Come to Jesus with whatever burden you are carrying and lay it down before him.
Sit and be still enough to hear his voice speaking to you right where you are.
“Take courage, Son/Daughter, your sins are forgiven.
Stand up, take your mat and go back home.” Matt.9

This story of the paralytic being carried by his friends to Jesus always astounds me.
First the very words of Jesus are directed to the man being carried. He saw and recognized the faith of the friends carrying the man. It was their courage that brought him there to receive a touch from Jesus.
Imagine you being the one that is carried and what thoughts and feelings might be coming up in you?
How long have you been stuck in this bed, discouraged without seeing any change or hope for healing in your body. Being a burden to your friends. It must have been so humbling to have to depend on others to carry you, and help you.
Jesus calls him son, and then exhorts him to take a hold of courage and receive forgiveness.
What did he need courage for?
To believe he was forgiven for all that is past, his faults and failings being carried to the cross, the one who bears all burdens.
Then he is healed and told to stand up, take the very mat he was stuck on all these years and walk on home.
Take a pause here and sense what that may have been like to act in faith upon the very words of a man you really didn’t know yet.
And he did it! He stood up, took the mat and walked back home.

What do you need courage for today?
What is Jesus asking you to take up , stand in faith for and walk back home?

Pause here to listen then pray,

“Jesus, healer of all our past, present and future failings, we choose to trust in the love and compassion you have for us right where we are today.
You see where we need to take courage and believe that there's a new path ahead for us to walk on.
In so doing we walk into new freedoms of belonging, knowing and being who we were called to be.
Help us and guide us this day to stand up in faith and believe what you say.
Let us follow the way you have made for us to come home.
Our true place of being which we call home.

As we are forgiven and free, may we act willingly to forgive the ones who will wrong us on the way and offer them the same grace and freedom you give to us. May we have the strength to carry the burden of a brother or sister and bring them to Jesus.
Let us take courage and believe in you today.

All glory be to your name, Jesus!
We pray.”
Amen