Daily Devotion

 With Pastor Ancel Presnell

“NAVIGATE THROUGH THE OBSTACLES”

Anything worth doing or having never comes easy and without obstacles in the way! If you want to watch your diet and lose weight, you can be sure, every food you should not have, you will crave. Even worse than that, it will seem as if you find yourself exposed to the very foods you don’t need.

Something as vital as the lost needing the Gospel and the touch of Christ in their life, you can bank on it, the devil will put obstacle after obstacle in your way. He does not want you sharing your faith. He does not want anyone hearing the good news of Christ, and he sure enough does not want anyone accepting Christ as Savior. So, what does the enemy do? He creates many obstacles to thwart it!

Everywhere Jesus went, He drew a crowd! This made it physically hard for people to get close to Him and give Him their need. There was a man who was palsied and crippled to a bed. His only hope was in Jesus; Well, Jesus was in town, but there was one little problem, the home he was in was filled. There was no way to get to Him.

Luckily, the man with palsy had some friends who were willing to navigate through the obstacles to get their friend to Jesus. They each pick a corner of his cot to lift on and they proceed to carry him to where Jesus is. When they get to Jesus, there is no physical way to get to him. It is too crowded in the home. Did the four friends/servants stop? No, they navigated through the obstacles and got their friend onto the roof of the home. They then began to remove ceiling tiles and then lowered him down to where Jesus was. Christ honored their faith, and He accepted the faith of the crippled man.

Because four servants loved their friend enough to see their friends need, know their friends need, and navigate through all the obstacles, just to get him to Jesus, it paid off! The man with palsy was healed. Do you realize the severity of your lost friends and family. They need Jesus! There may be obstacles in the way. Do not stop! Navigate through the obstacles. Notice, they didn’t go through all that trouble only to find Jesus was no longer there. No, Jesus was right there, and He will be right. There for our friends and family too! Get them to Jesus!

Mark 2:3—5 “³ And they come unto him, bringing one sick of the palsy, which was borne of four. ⁴ And when they could not come nigh unto him for the press, they uncovered the roof where he was: and when they had broken it up, they let down the bed wherein the sick of the palsy lay. ⁵ When Jesus saw their faith, he said unto the sick of the palsy, Son, thy sins be forgiven thee.”