How do we exhibit fellowship to one another? There’s a story in the Bible about a man who was paralysed and could not help himself. Jesus was close by and some friends, knowing of his situation took the bold move to pick him up and take him to Jesus. When they got there the crowd was so large that they could not get in to the house. So these devoted friends took him up to the roof, made a hole and let him down right in front of Jesus! We often concentrate on what happened next but let’s not forget these friends. They were surely good friends to have around who would go the extra mile.

Real fellowship is like that. We all have some sort of paralysis, some problem or imperfection that’s ours, which we carry around. Do we have friends that we can share this burden with? Do we want to share the burden? This last Sunday at church we had the privilege to share burdens with each other as we spent time in prayer. We were able to answer “How are you” truthfully and then saw other persons take on our burdens for and with us. That’s real fellowship.

Some of you may already enjoy this kind of fellowship with others. That’s great. Make sure it continues to be genuine. For the rest of us, let’s try to answer “How are you” truthfully so that others can see us and remember us in prayer, with a word of encouragement, take us to lunch, shine our shoes, whatever it takes. I know this requires trust and you won’t always be able to do this with everyone but I pray that you can find those close friends who can be there for you.

Tomorrow we will see how the ultimate Friend, Jesus was able to restore a fellowship that was broken.