Today's readings: Nahum 1-3; John 5
Move
Topic: Discipleship
Scripture
Afterward Jesus returned to Jerusalem for one of the Jewish holy days. Inside the city, near the Sheep Gate, was the pool of Bethesda, with five covered porches. Crowds of sick people--blind, lame or paralyzed--lay on the porches. One of the men lying there had been sick for thirty-eight years. When Jesus saw him and knew how long he had been ill, he asked him, "Would you like to get well?"
"I can't, sir," the sick man said, "for I have no one to help me into the pool when the water is stirred up. While I am trying to get there, someone else always gets in ahead of me."
Jesus told him, "Stand up, pick-up your sleeping mat, and walk!"
Instantly, the man was healed! He rolled up the mat and began walking! But this miracle happened on the Sabbath day. So the Jewish leaders objected. They said to the man who was cured, "You can't work on the Sabbath! It's illegal to carry that sleeping mat!"
He replied, "The man who healed me said to me, 'Pick up your sleeping mat and walk.'"
"Who said such a thing as that?" they demanded.
The man didn't know. for Jesus had disappeared into the crowd. But afterward Jesus found him in the Temple and told him, "Now you are well, so stop sinning, or something even worse may happen to you." Then the man went to find the Jewish leaders and told them it was Jesus who had healed him.
John 5.1-15 (NLT)
Observation
Jesus knows just what we need and when!
Application (How will I be different today because of what I just read?)
Jesus' first question to the man was--"Do you want to be healed?" Seems like a silly question considering the man's condition and where he was. The man came back with excuses--none of them were his fault. I don't think he knew that whining is not a spiritual gift.
How often do I sit and whine about circumstances--instead of looking to God for the answer?
Jesus then tells him, "Pick up your sleeping mat and walk." It was what he needed to do.
Do I listen when Jesus tells me what I need to do to move out of the circumstance I am in?
The man did what Jesus told him to do--and "instantly" he was healed! I wonder what would happen if I would respond to Jesus that quickly?
In Jesus I have the answers I need to move out of my circumstance. I just need to listen and obey. Not listen to those around me telling me why it's not right. I have to trust the one in whom I have put my faith--Jesus. He knows just what I need--and is glad to help me. It is up to me to move.
Prayer
Father God, thank You that You do not leave me in my circumstances--that You offer me a way out--Jesus. Help me to not sit and whine, but to look to Jesus for my salvation and help. In Jesus name, Amen.
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