THE MAN AT THE POOL OF BETHESDA
Satan would like to keep us discouraged and sad as long and as
often as possible. But we can’t let him! I started off this morning by telling
myself Psalm 118:24: “This is the day which
the Lord hath made; I will rejoice and be glad in it.” I also
told myself: “I’m going to have a great day.” I had to say it three times
before I even partially believed it. Then I got up and just started doing
things. I went outside and turned the water on the lawn, went online and did my
unemployment, got my laundry ready, and I started to feel a little better, but
I was still feeling a little dejected. You know that feeling when you know that
whatever happened was really a good thing, but you still feel sorry for
yourself anyway? That was me.
We all get disappointed and discouraged at times
and sometimes want to indulge in a bit of self-pity over one thing or another.
It’s just human nature. We get tired of always fighting and working and
fighting and working, and it just gets us down sometimes.
Jesus’ disciples had the same problem.
Jesus took them to the Mount of Olives just
before his crucifixion. He told them to pray while he went off a little way to
pray by himself. But when he “rose up from prayer, and was come to his disciples, he found them
sleeping for sorrow” (Luke 22:45).
But Jesus “said unto them, ‘Why sleep ye? Rise and pray, lest ye
enter into temptation’” (vs.46). Jesus knows human nature so well! And isn’t that just so true? If we stay in our
“poor me, I just want to sleep” state, we’re much more likely to fall into
deeper temptations that get harder and harder to escape. Satan is definitely
looking for that. First, Peter 5:8 tells us: “Your
adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may
devour.”
A great example of someone who let the “poor me”
temptation escalate into years of sorrow, was the crippled man at the pool of
Bethesda. He’d been coming down to the pool to get his healing for 38 years!
Jesus asked him: “Do you want to become well? Are
you really in earnest about getting well?” (John 5:6). The man didn’t say yes.
Instead, he answered by blaming other people, saying it was their fault he
wasn’t getting healed because they’d push themselves ahead of him, and he didn’t
have the mobility they had, and no one ever helped him. It’s easy to blame others for our lack of joy,
health, and happiness. But like this feeble man, our lack of physical mobility
or skill is not the real problem. And blaming others is not an acceptable
excuse in Jesus’ eyes.
Jesus told the crippled man he had to take the
forward action himself. “Jesus saith unto him, ‘Rise, take up thy bed, and walk.’ And
immediately the man was made whole, and took up his bed, and walked” (John 5:.8-9).
When Jesus says something is available, it is. He’s saying the same thing to us
today: “Rise, take up thy bed and walk.”
When there’s no one around to lift us up out of our slump, we have
to do it ourselves with God’s Word. And because
God already knew we’d have some problems with this, He put lots of scriptures
throughout the Bible to help us.
Hebrews 12:12 is a good one: “Wherefore lift up the hands which
hang down, and the feeble knees; And make straight paths for your feet.”
And 1 Timothy 1:6-7 says: “Stir up the gift of God, which is
in thee. For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and
of love, and of a sound mind.”
Isaiah 61:3 tells us the Lord gives us “the garment of praise
for the spirit of heaviness.” But we’re the ones who have to put it on. When
we’re feeling burdened, the last thing we want to do is get up, go to the
closet and put on something bright and happy. But I’ll never forget the words
of Rose Marie, a church secretary I once met. I complimented her on how pretty
she looked one day. She replied, “I always try to look my best when I feel my
worst.” Great advice.
The Word of God is true, no matter what we feel. When we agree
with what God says and believe it with our whole heart, and we start to act on
it, then it becomes a reality and manifests in our natural world. All things in
the natural world will respond favorably to God’s Word because He’s the one who
created all these things in the first place. He spoke words in the beginning
(Genesis 1-2) that created everything in our natural world. And His spoken Word
is still creating for us when we believe it.
The weakened man at the pool of Bethesda was coming to the pool,
hoping for healing. He was at least trying. He was going to the right place, but
when Jesus spoke God’s specific Word to him, he connected, he believed, and he
rose up and was made whole. He was released from whatever caused him to be
crippled, and he walked out a new man.
Some of us older people have been waiting many years, like this
man, in the right place, but we haven’t yet connected to the right creative Word
from God to get our wholeness. But some of you are young, and you’re not even
38 years old yet. Don’t wait 38 years to get your healing and deliverance. Take
it now. Believe with your whole heart that what God’s creative Word says to you,
all of it is true. Believe what Jesus says. Rise up and walk.
Love, Carolyn
Don’t forget that you can learn how to make the Bible an everyday
experience. Get your copy of my new book:
WINGS: A JOURNEY IN FAITH VOL. 2
No comments:
Post a Comment