{"id":24220,"date":"2015-02-03T00:20:46","date_gmt":"2015-02-03T05:20:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/?p=24220"},"modified":"2015-02-02T16:24:21","modified_gmt":"2015-02-02T21:24:21","slug":"faith-forgiveness","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/2015\/02\/03\/faith-forgiveness\/","title":{"rendered":"Faith and Forgiveness"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"SeekingHimLogo\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Seeing their faith, Jesus said to the paralyzed man, <\/span><\/strong>
\n\u201cMy child, your sins are forgiven.\u201d<\/span><\/strong>
\nMark 2:5 NLT<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

faith: <\/span><\/em>reliance upon and trust in God
\n– Lexham Bible Dictionary<\/h3>\n
\n

“If prayer is the hand that opens the door of blessing,
\nfaith is the hand that receives the blessing,
\nand not for itself merely, but for others.”
\n– F. E. Marsh<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Sometimes our faith dwindles and we wonder if it can sustain us. \u00a0Isn’t it wonderful when friends step out in faith for us? \u00a0These four knew they could not help their friend…but they did know<\/span> Who could. \u00a0And though they were not exactly correct about what kind of help was needed, they knew Who had the answer.<\/p>\n

James 5:15 (NASB) tells us “…and the prayer offered in faith will restore the one who is sick, and the Lord will raise him up, and if he has committed sins, they will be forgiven him.” \u00a0And in Hebrews 6:1b (NLT) we are reminded of the “…fundamental importance of repenting from evil deeds and placing our faith in God.\u201d<\/p>\n

Faith<\/span> is the key.<\/h4>\n

In this one verse (Mark 2:5), Jesus makes it abundantly clear what is most important. \u00a0It isn’t our physical well-being, our monetary wealth, or our social status. \u00a0It is the state of our soul, our spiritual well-being. \u00a0Our greatest need is for salvation. \u00a0One of the greatest miracles is God freeing us from the power of sin because of faith. \u00a0He is the only One who can truly set us free. Four simple words\u2014”Your sins are forgiven.” No qualifiers. \u00a0Jesus doesn’t say because you are pretty you are forgiven. \u00a0He doesn’t say because you are smart you are forgiven. \u00a0No, all that is required is faith…faith in Jesus Christ. \u00a0Just like that our sins are forgiven. \u00a0Past, present, and future. \u00a0Permanently erased. \u00a0And sometimes, it is all because someone interceded in faith for us.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Seeing their faith, Jesus said to the paralyzed man, \u201cMy child, your sins are forgiven.\u201d Mark 2:5 NLT faith: reliance upon and trust in God – Lexham Bible Dictionary “If prayer is the hand that opens the door of blessing, faith is the hand that receives the blessing, and not for itself merely, but for […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":164,"featured_media":13840,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3020],"tags":[5889,3367,8358,365,8359,1287,425,8357,8356,8289,8355,3174],"class_list":["post-24220","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-daily-devotions","tag-cynda-cottrill","tag-daily-devotions-2","tag-f-e-marsh","tag-faith","tag-faith-and-forgiveness","tag-gch","tag-girlfriends-coffee-hour","tag-hebrews-61","tag-james-515","tag-jesus-words-on-faith","tag-mark-2-5","tag-seeking-him-devotional","entry"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/08\/SeekingHimLogo.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p39pHp-6iE","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24220","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/164"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24220"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24220\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":24222,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24220\/revisions\/24222"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13840"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24220"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24220"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24220"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}