{"id":23436,"date":"2022-07-01T00:01:26","date_gmt":"2022-06-30T23:01:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gfhlive.tv\/freshfire\/?p=23436"},"modified":"2022-06-30T16:20:08","modified_gmt":"2022-06-30T15:20:08","slug":"compassion-faith-action","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gfhlive.tv\/freshfire\/2022\/07\/01\/compassion-faith-action\/","title":{"rendered":"Compassion, Faith &#038; Action"},"content":{"rendered":"<!--[if lt IE 9]><script>document.createElement('audio');<\/script><![endif]-->\n<audio class=\"wp-audio-shortcode\" id=\"audio-23436-1\" preload=\"none\" style=\"width: 100%;\" controls=\"controls\"><source type=\"audio\/mpeg\" src=\"http:\/\/gfhlive.tv\/freshfire\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/July-1..mp3?_=1\" \/><a href=\"http:\/\/gfhlive.tv\/freshfire\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/July-1..mp3\">http:\/\/gfhlive.tv\/freshfire\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/July-1..mp3<\/a><\/audio>\n<p class=\"p3\" style=\"text-align: center;\"><i><a href=\"https:\/\/www2.bible.com\/en-GB\/bible\/116\/ACT.3.6-7\">Acts 3:<sup>6-7<\/sup> <\/a>\u201cBut Peter said, \u201cI don\u2019t have any silver or gold for you. But I\u2019ll give you what I have. In the name of Jesus Christ the Nazarene, get up and walk!\u201d<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>Then Peter took the lame man by the right hand and helped him up. And as he did, the man\u2019s feet and ankles were instantly healed\u2026\u201d<\/i><\/p>\n<p class=\"p5\">Yesterday, we looked at our first lesson, compassion, from the four friends in the story in <a href=\"https:\/\/www2.bible.com\/en-GB\/bible\/116\/MRK.2.1-12\">Mark 2:1-12<\/a> [please read]. <a href=\"https:\/\/www2.bible.com\/en-GB\/bible\/70\/1CO.10.24\">1 Cor. 10:<sup>24<\/sup><\/a> <i>\u201cPeople should be concerned about <\/i><span class=\"s1\"><b><i>others<\/i><\/b><\/span><i> and not just about <\/i><span class=\"s1\"><b><i>themselves<\/i><\/b><\/span><i>.\u201d<\/i><b><i> <\/i><\/b>(GW, emphasis added). <!--more-->Now it is important to mention that the reason people are not concerned about others is not that they are evil or wicked. The reason people are not concerned about others is that they are concerned about themselves. <span class=\"s1\"><b>I<\/b><\/span> have bills to pay, <span class=\"s1\"><b>I<\/b><\/span> have people to take care of, <span class=\"s1\"><b>I<\/b><\/span> have this to do, <span class=\"s1\"><b>I<\/b><\/span> have that to do that. So, we just block our eyes to the needs of others. But the Word of God says we should be concerned about others.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p5\">Our second lesson of these four men is <b>Faith<\/b>. They had faith, they actually believed Jesus can and will heal their friend. <a href=\"https:\/\/www2.bible.com\/en-GB\/bible\/111\/LUK.5.20\">Luke 5:<sup>20<\/sup><\/a> <i>\u201cWhen Jesus saw <\/i><span class=\"s1\"><i>their faith<\/i><\/span><i>, he said, \u2018Friend, your sins are forgiven.\u2019\u201d <\/i>(NIV, emphasis added). Yes, Jesus saw the faith of the man that was lowered but it took the faith of his friends to put the man&#8217;s faith in a position for Jesus to respond to his faith. It is your move; you need to believe that God will step into that your cousin&#8217;s situation or your spouse&#8217;s challenge. That is what will propel you to carry them into God&#8217;s presence. What I am saying is that God wants to use your faith in someone else&#8217;s life. God wants to use your faith! Most times, we want to use our faith for our own issues, but God wants to use our faith for someone else.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p5\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www2.bible.com\/en-GB\/bible\/105\/ROM.1.12\">Rom. 1:<sup>12<\/sup><\/a> <i>\u201cI want us to <\/i><span class=\"s1\"><i>help each other with the faith we have<\/i><\/span><i>. Your faith will help me, and my faith will help you.&#8221; <\/i>(NCV, emphasis added). Your faith will help me, and my faith will help you. God wants to use your faith in my life and use my faith in your life. Sometimes, we look at other people and we think that our faith cannot do anything for them. Yes, it can! God wants us to help each other with the faith that we have. <a href=\"https:\/\/www2.bible.com\/en-GB\/bible\/105\/1TH.5.17\">1 Thes.5:<sup>11<\/sup><\/a> <i>\u201cSo encourage each other and give each other strength.&#8221; <\/i>(NCV). God wants you to use your faith in other people\u2019s lives even as He stirs up other people to use their faith in your life.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p5\">Our third lesson is <b>Action<\/b>. These four men did not just fast and pray for their friend, they took action. <a href=\"https:\/\/www2.bible.com\/en-GB\/bible\/105\/MAT.9.2\">Matt.9:<sup>2<\/sup> <\/a><i>\u201cThey <\/i><span class=\"s1\"><i>brought to Jesus<\/i><\/span><i> a man who was <\/i><span class=\"s1\"><i>paralyzed<\/i><\/span><i> and lying on a mat.\u201d <\/i>(NCV, emphasis added). This is Matthew&#8217;s account of the same event.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>Their friend was in bad shape, and I am sure they spent time praying for him. But they did not stop there, they demonstrated faith and swung into action. Prayer should be a motivation to act not an excuse for not acting. The challenge sometimes with us Christians is that we are praying and praying but we are not acting. It is time to act, it is your move. Sometimes, we are in a move of God and our heart goes to certain people who we wish could experience this. That is great but what are you going to do about it? Are you just going to pray? God wants you and I to do something about it.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p3\" style=\"text-align: center;\"><b>Prayer<\/b>: Father, as I reach out to people and bring them before You, heal, deliver, set free, restore, and save them all my Father, in Jesus Name. Amen!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Acts 3:6-7 \u201cBut Peter said, \u201cI don\u2019t have any silver or gold for you. But I\u2019ll give you what I have. In the name of Jesus Christ the Nazarene, get up and walk!\u201d\u00a0 Then Peter took the lame man by the right hand and helped him up. And as he did, the man\u2019s feet and [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[242,152,82,194,54,248,15,186],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-23436","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ability","category-action","category-community","category-decision","category-encouragement","category-people","category-prayer","category-strength"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gfhlive.tv\/freshfire\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23436","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gfhlive.tv\/freshfire\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gfhlive.tv\/freshfire\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gfhlive.tv\/freshfire\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gfhlive.tv\/freshfire\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23436"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/gfhlive.tv\/freshfire\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23436\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23490,"href":"https:\/\/gfhlive.tv\/freshfire\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23436\/revisions\/23490"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gfhlive.tv\/freshfire\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23436"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gfhlive.tv\/freshfire\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23436"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gfhlive.tv\/freshfire\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23436"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}