Hi, and welcome to Five Word Prayers Daily, a five-day-a-week daily devotional where we share the

word, prayers, and our heart. I'm Lisa Whittle, and I welcome you to just five minutes with me,

which I trust and pray will be five minutes well spent. Well, I don't know if you listen to the

five-word prayers daily in succession, but today's conversation is a perfect follow-up to what we talked about

yesterday. So if you haven't listened to our conversation about grace, you may want to do that

first. We're going to be talking about the idea of gratitude even further, looking at how our

appreciation for our life and even more our love for Jesus will result in us honoring him by loving other people

well. It's really important to have an honest chat about getting involved in the hurts and needs

of others. So husband is also a communicator, an excellent one by the way.

We met in seminary, and he's an ordained minister, though we do two totally different types of things

career-wise. But he used to teach a message on the paralytic

from the Gospels. You can read that later if you want in Mark 2, 1 through 12. But the gist of

the story is this, that a man was paralyzed and his four friends brought him to Jesus to be healed,

but they had to lower him down on a mat from sort of this makeshift hole in the roof because the

room was so crowded. So they had to do this so that he would have a chance to get to God.

And of course, God did heal him, but the point of the story I want to focus on today is something

my husband would focus on in his message. He would always say this, it takes time to get

involved in the hurts and needs of others. It'll cost you energy. It takes effort to get involved,

and it's going to cost you resources, maybe beyond even what you think you have. But those who

truly love God won't count the cost. I've never forgotten that, and it's really true. I think we

are count-costers. I have to be honest and say, I know I often am. We think what will getting

involved with this ministry or these people cost me? I've got so much going on, now God you want me to do this. The needs are so

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