The paralysed hand - All The Good Seed Daily Devotionals for 2026

There was a man who had a withered hand. He (Jesus) said to the man, Stretch out your hand. And he stretched it out, and it was restored as whole as the other. Whatever you hand finds to do, do it with your might.
Matthew 12:10.13; Ecclesiastes 9:10

The paralysed hand
Having one hand paralysed is a serious handicap. One's freedom in handling things is much reduced, and simple actions become quite complicated. We discover this regularly. In the gospels we find a man who was affected by this infirmity. Jesus told him to do something that would normally have been impossible: "Stretch out your hand!" By obeying immediately, the invalid gave the proof of his faith. He received the use of his hand again. The miraculous healing was clear to all.

Each one us is by nature incapable of doing anything good for God. That is the symbolical sense of that paralysed hand. The physical cure that that man experienced can be ours today regarding our soul. But we have to count entirely on the Lord Jesus Christ. Whoever recognizes his inability and comes to Him in faith, accepting Him as his Saviour, becomes a "new creation" (2 Corinthians 5, 17). Whereas it was impossible to do anything to be delivered, from that moment on he has been saved by grace through faith. He has become a new man "created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand" (cf. Ephesians 2, 8 - 10).

Our hands, formerly useless for any service, can be transformed by Jesus to perform active, beneficial works. Doing good is what the Word of God encourages believers to do from their conversion onwards.

Today's reading: Deuteronomy ch. 8