“Arise and walk!” Matthew 9:5 NKJV

“You can always do more than you think you can.”

My thoughts today are about “believing you can.”

Life will confront you with some challenging moments and situations. You are not always prepared, and certainly not always forewarned. What you choose to believe and do at such times will greatly determine your level of success in life. Sometimes you may feel outmatched and overwhelmed – a very real feeling, but really nothing more than an emotion that may or may not be true. You will not know whether your feelings are fact or fiction until you try to go against them.

Here’s something that I have learned. Feelings are real so you have to deal with them; they are rarely accurate or true, so you don’t have to believe them. Any feeling that tempts you toward doubt and despair, and causes you to disbelieve what God has told you, is not believable – more your enemy, not your friend.

Jesus commanded this paralyzed man to do what he had not been able to do before. And he did exactly that (Matthew 9:5-7 NIV), amazing everyone around him, maybe even amazing himself for a moment. But Jesus was not surprised. The man knew well what he could not do; Jesus knew well what this man could do, if he would! He was confronted with a similar choice that you may face, “Arise and walk!” Will you believe what you think or feel – or even what your own history says – you cannot do, or will you believe what Jesus tells you that you can? There will always be some things that you can’t do, until you refuse to believe that you can’t! You can always do more than you think you can.

Would it have been more compassionate if Jesus better understood this man’s very real history of physical inability and did not require so much of him? Sometimes the truest compassion asks you to do the very hard thing that will release you to greater attempts and accomplishments.

You don’t need people’s sympathy when facing difficult things; you need their loving encouragement for you to do what needs to be done. Mark’s account of this incident describes four friends who carried their friend to Jesus. See Mark 2:1-5 NKJV. In life, you need to build real relationships with family and friends who inspire, encourage, and assist you to listen for Jesus to say, “Arise and walk!” Who can you name that would do that for you? I am thankful for friends in my life like that; I trust that you will have them as well.

But remember, others can do only so much for you. He could not get to Jesus without their help, and it was their effort and faith that moved Jesus, but he alone could embrace the opportunity Jesus was giving him. There comes a time and place when nothing more can be done for you by others; you ultimately have to do what you must to see the result you need.

And as importantly, you need to become that kind of friend for others. “A man that has friends must show himself friendly . .  some friends are more loyal than brothers.” Proverbs 18:24 NKJV/TEV.

My prayer for you today is to believe that you can because God says that you can.