The rich young ruler went away sad after Jesus told him the truth about what he must do to enter the Kingdom of God. The man did not value the importance of having God in his life. What do we value - the things of this world or is our primary focus on the things of God? When James and John asked to be seated on either of Jesus in glory, their focus and attitude was on themselves. Jesus reminds them, and the other disciples, that He had come to this earth to serve others and not be served. We need to do the same and be seeking the needs of others before ourselves. When we do serve others, what is our attitude - is it with a servant heart or self seeking heart? As Christians, don't serve God because you want to be accepted by Him, but serve because we are already accepted with joy and gladness by Him.

When driving a car we are aware there are blind spots. The Christian life can also have blind spots that we need to be careful of, namely (1) hard hearts where we are not open to hear what God has to say, or (2) a worldly heart where our thinking is the way the world thinks and we miss what God has to say to us, or (3) no spiritual growth because we don't spend enough time with God. The Pharisees had hard hearts and no faith because they wanted Jesus to show them a sign from heaven, even though Jesus had already performed many miracles. Faith is about being sure of the things we don't see and we need to live each day with this faith in Jesus. If we focus our minds on worldly things, we do not allow God to work in our lives. We need Jesus to take control of our lives and then we will see clearly what He wants us to do.

Throughout Jesus' ministry on earth, He healed and forgave sins of individual people, including in this passage, bringing a girl back from the dead. These acts are a foretaste of what Jesus will ultimately do - give His life so that all of us can be saved and enter into the Kingdom of God if we believe and accept Him as our Saviour. Jesus shows His power over nature in being able to calm the storm. It showed, at this stage, that His own disciples did not have faith and trust in Him. When things get tough for us, do we have faith and trust in Jesus to see us through? Jarius' faith was tested when he found out that his daughter had died. Jesus showed that He had power and authority even over death. As Christians, we know that we are not immune to disease, difficult times and ultimately death. Committing our lives to God means that we will conquer all of these things after our time on earth and will spend an eternity with Him.

Jesus looked up and saw the faith of the men who had brought the paralytic man to Him. We need to show this same sought of faith in bringing others to know Jesus. Jesus looked down and brought forgiveness of sins to the paralytic man. We need to come to Jesus, repent and believe, to have true forgiveness of our sins. Jesus looked around and saw the religious leaders. He looked within them and knew their inner most thoughts. Jesus knows everything about us. Jesus is the great healer. He came to bring people back into fulfillment, release them from their sin and to make them free. Jesus can't heal those people who either do not want to know Him, know Him but don't want to trust Him or don't think they need Him. Let us not miss the opportunity to have a relationship with Jesus Christ and what He has to offer - forgiveness, fulfillment and freedom.

On this Australia Day, we can reflect on how great our country is - the lucky country! But as great as this country is, it is not our country, this world is not our home. We are foreigners and strangers, aliens to this world. But what does this mean? We need to put our faith and trust in God and follow Him. When we are born, our address is this world. When we are 'born again' our new address is heaven - God's kingdom. It can be difficult at times to walk the Christian life, but we are to persevere, put our faith and trust in Jesus and not turn back to our old ways. Is the focus of our lives for the things of this world or is it to put our faith and trust in Jesus and glorify God?