I was reading Mark the other morning, and something struck me as though it were the first time I have ever read it. Please tell me this happens to you, too. You have read something in scripture hundreds of times, then one day, Bam! It just suddenly makes more sense? I hope I am not the only one who seems to take decades for the ability to grasp and learn something.
So I was reading Mark 2, and I love this story. I love the story of the paralytic man being lowered through the roof by his friends to get to Jesus. Our pastor spoke on this a couple of years ago, and I remember him asking us, “Can you imagine what the homeowners must have thought? Having a hole cut through their roof?” I don’t know if they were okay with it … if maybe the friends helped patch it up that same day?
But this is not the point I wanted to make. Sometimes I’m like the dogs in the movie, Up! “Squirrel!”
Here’s what struck me. “When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, “Son, your sins are forgiven.” Now some teachers of the law were sitting there, thinking to themselves, “Why does this fellow talk like that? He’s blaspheming! Who can forgive sins but God alone?” Immediately Jesus knew in his spirit this was what they were thinking in their hearts, and he said to them, “Why are you thinking these things?” - Mark 2:5-8 (NIV)
This has been taught to me, I’m sure countless times in my life. But the other morning I had those, “head to toe” chills as I read this passage.
*Jesus knew in His spirit this was what they were thinking in their hearts.*
Y’all. I need to do a better job of what I think and what is in my heart. Because even though I might, “think it, don’t say it,” I need to do better. I need to not think a lot of things I think. I need to not feel a lot of things I feel. The more time I spend with Papa and poring through His scripture and in prayer, the less time I will think and feel the things I should not be thinking and feeling.
Jesus knows everything in our minds and in our hearts. I need to do a better job of making Him proud.