What really motivates you? What keeps you up and going? Your goal? An innate desire to make it in life at all costs? What would be the four most important items on your agenda - wealth, success, health and happiness? How do you intend to make these happen once you have prioritised them?
People are driven by different things and for different reasons. They also will employ different methods to get the expected results and outcomes. Some see only the end in view and will gear up all the energy it takes for their dreams and objectives to materialise. Nothing can stop them.
What has been driving you lately? Have you made any headway? The size of your goal does not matter. Would you be able to see it through? Are you determined and able to carry on whatever the odds? We will examine closely a few of the biblical characters who were driven by the motive to crown their efforts with success. Did they succeed, didn’t they and why?
The need to succeed in life is an in-built characteristic common to every achiever. Few people would be happy to stay the way they are throughout their lifetime. We want to develop, to grow, to effect positive changes and to be proud of them. Nobody would be content to stay the way s/he is, day after day, year after year.
We read of a lady, whose name is not mentioned, who had spent all her resources in search of a cure to her ailment. “She had suffered a great deal under the care of many doctors and had spent all she had, yet instead of getting better she was getting worse.” (Mark 5:26) It had been this way for the past twelve years and in spite of all her efforts she had not found a solution to her problem, nor had her health improved. She was therefore at the crossroads; all the attempts she had made had borne no fruit. She had become desperate. Would I ever get well, she must have questioned?
Then one day she heard about the healing power of Jesus of Nazareth and she determined in her heart to go in search of Him. All she yearned to do was just to touch Him, touch His robe. She had resolved to remain anonymous in this operation as she inched her way towards the Master. Neither the size of the crowd nor how she would get to Jesus seemed to be an impediment. What was important was to touch Him. “When she heard about Jesus, she came up behind Him in the crowd and touched His cloak, because she thought, “If I just touch His clothes, I will be healed.” (Mark 5:27-28)
That was a very important assignment the lady had given herself. She braved it through the crowd irrespective of the taboos of her day, driven solely by her desire to put an end to her illness. This illness she was willing to trade for her wellness at all costs. And it worked for her. “Immediately her bleeding stopped and she felt in her body that she was freed from her suffering.” (Mark 5:29) Bull’s eye! Objective attained!
That was all she wanted. She had planned it and she had attained it - the one touch objective. What objective do you have this year that you intend to attain at all costs? Do not sit down and wish it would happen by God’s grace. Be a go-getter! Make your miracle happen. Not every one could receive Jesus’ attention because of the large crowds that He drew. It would take an undaunted spirit and lots of courage to surmount such barriers to one’s goal.
Friends of a paralytic were similarly motivated after they had watched the health of their friend deteriorate with no apparent help in sight. Then they received word that Jesus was in their neighbourhood. They summoned courage and headed to where Jesus was. Unfortunately that day “the Pharisees and the teachers of the law had come from every
There was no turning back. So they resolved to strip the roof, lower their sick friend ‘on his mat through the tiles into the middle of the crowd, right in front of Jesus.’ (Luke 5:19) Ingenious, isn’t it? They wanted results by all means. The account reads; “When Jesus saw their faith, he said, ‘Friend, your sins are forgiven.” That Jesus claimed to forgive sins was contested by the Pharisees. In response however, He said to the paralysed man, “I tell you, get up, take your mat and go home.” (Luke 5:24) “Immediately he stood up in front of them, took what he had been lying on and went home praising God.” (Luke 5:25)
Joy must have filled the hearts of the friends who had lowered the paralysed man through the roof, more so than the paralysed man himself. This bold step they had taken had borne fruit. By their attitude, they were saying the quarrel with the house owner could be settled later. What was important was that their friend was back on his feet again.
Whatever it is you have determined in your heart to do, pursue it to the very end. Be steadfast and God will grant you your heart’s desire, in Jesus’ name. What we all need to pepper our measure of faith with is the determination to succeed, dismissing every obstacle that we may encounter on the way.
It is the desire to be healed that Jesus saw in the lady with the issue of blood and the friends of the paralysed man that He appreciated. What have you been doing with your illness, nursing it? Sickness does not belong to your body, it is an impostor come to rid and deny you of your rightful inheritance in the
Jesus said to the lady; “Daughter, your faith has healed you. Go in peace and be freed from your suffering.” (Mark 5:34) He wants to say that to you today if you will call upon him.
