Prayer Devotional: Author Kerstin Eriksson

Thank you for the opportunity to share some thoughts with you. I have been a member of
ISAAC for many years, although recently it has been a bit remote. My first meeting with
ISAAC was at a conference in Madrid many years ago. A meeting that made a great
impression on me. Imagine meeting so many people from all corners of the world who all
had a longing to help people in vulnerable situations and addiction. They were all filled with
a longing to share the gospel and to talk about freedom from drugs.

It has been a few years since I was in close contact with ISAAC but when I logged in to the
prayer meeting a few weeks ago I was so touched to see that God is calling new workers to
the harvest. Workers with the same calling to help people in need. A call to freedom.

If the Son sets you free you will be free indeed. John 8:36 (NIV)

We need more workers. Addiction destroys so many human lives: addicts, families, children
and young people. We meet people in our work today who live in such difficult situations.
You can’t understand how they survive. In no way has the mission ended.

I heard on the radio, a winter a few years ago, a homeless person being interviewed. You know
in Sweden the winters can be cold and harsh. He told the reporter about his life situation.
Cold nights, hunger but he said someone gave me a really warm sleeping bag so ‘now I feel
much better.’

I was in a Pentecostal church some time ago to present our work, administration and
finances. A bit boring and as I sat there with all my papers I looked up at the church wall. There was a Bible verse there:

John 10:10. I have come that they may have life and life in abundance.

Jesus has come that we may have life and life in abundance. Jesus has come that
our dear friends in need may have life and life in abundance. It’s more than a sleeping bag
when it’s cold outside.

Sometimes we get questions from social workers and others about what really happens
when a person is saved. I don’t know. But what I do know is that it works. A new life, a new
creation, a new way of thinking, a new hope, a new joy, a new security, a new peace, a new
strength to tackle difficult issues. God comes with tools that no human has. Tools that can
repair a broken life.

I want to close by reading a well known Bible passage from Mark 2: 1-12.

A few days later, when Jesus again entered Capernaum, the people heard that he had come home. ² They gathered in such large numbers that there was no room left, not even outside the door, and he preached the word to them. ³ Some men came, bringing to him a paralyzed man, carried by four of them. ⁴ Since they could not get him to Jesus because of the crowd, they made an opening in the roof above Jesus by digging through it and then lowered the mat the man was lying on. ⁵ When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralyzed man, “Son, your sins are forgiven.”

⁶ Now some teachers of the law were sitting there, thinking to themselves, ⁷ “Why does this fellow talk like that? He’s blaspheming! Who can forgive sins but God alone?”

⁸ Immediately Jesus knew in his spirit that this was what they were thinking in their hearts, and he said to them, “Why are you thinking these things? ⁹ Which is easier: to say to this paralyzed man, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Get up, take your mat and walk’? ¹⁰ But I want you to know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins.” So he said to the man, ¹¹ “I tell you, get up, take your mat and go home.” ¹² He got up, took his mat and walked out in full view of them all. This amazed everyone and they praised God, saying, “We have never seen anything like this!”

When I think of our friends who are stuck in addiction, it is like the lame man. Totally
paralyzed. Year after year no change. Unable to get out of their situation. Despite losing
everything, family, home, job, friends. Totally paralyzed by the drugs.

Then a team of carriers is needed that takes the lame and at all costs carries him or her to
Jesus. A team of carriers that can be good at many different things. Cooking, calculating
finances, talking to authorities, driving a car. It is all needed.

But at the same time a team of carriers who understands and fights to carry the addicted to
Jesus because only he can do the miracle. Only he can set free.

A team of carriers who do not give up if ordinary ways are closed. They look for new ways to
bring the person in need to Jesus. In the story we hear how they made a hole in the roof and
hoisted the man down. Surely there were many people who were very irritated by that
move. But the team of carriers knew that the lame man needed to meet Jesus. And they put
up with being troublesome and annoying.

I think that the former lame man, when he had taken his bed and gone home, had a lot to
sort out before he could live a completely normal life like everyone else. He probably needed
to change his entire home. I think that the team of carriers that fought to get him to Jesus
happily helped him to arrange his new life.

We need teams of carriers like that. I want to be part of a team of carriers like that. Even
though the years have passed and I have gotten a little older, I still want to be part of a team
of carriers like that.

Let us pray

Dear Heavenly Father, we come before you with gratitude. Gratitude to be part of a carrier
team where we get to carry people in need to you. Gratitude to see people’s lives
transformed. Gratitude that you are with us through both joy and hardship. Gratitude for
your faithfulness, year after year you carry us. Amen