[There was a feast of
the Jews, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem.
Now there is in
Jerusalem at the Sheep Gate
a pool
called in Hebrew Bethesda, with five porticoes.
In these lay a large
number of ill, blind, lame, and crippled.
One man was there who
had been ill for thirty-eight years.
When Jesus saw him
lying there
and knew
that he had been ill for a long time, he said to him,
“Do you
want to be well?”
The sick man answered
him,
“Sir, I
have no one to put me into the pool
when the
water is stirred up;
while I
am on my way, someone else gets down there before me.”
Jesus said to him,
“Rise, take up your mat, and walk.”
Immediately the man
became well, took up his mat, and walked.] (Jn. 5:1-9)
“Do you want to be
well?” Jesus asks this odd question to the sick man confined to a mat. The
answer the man will supply is obvious to us and most likely to Jesus as well,
yet He still asks it. Jesus does not assume the man wants to be healed. He
waits for the sick man’s request.
Jesus poses this same
question to you. “Do you want to be well?” Again I’m sure the answer is
obvious, “Of course I do.” Yet, it’s ironic that many times we don’t ask
Jesus to heal us. We’d rather rely on ourselves or wait for the situation
to fix itself all the while needlessly suffering alone.
What needs to be made
“well” in your life? Are you and your spouse going through a rough patch?
Are you trying to crawl away from the shackles of a certain sin(s)? Are
you having difficulties at work or with coworkers? Is your financial situation
enslaving your every thought? Are you mourning the imminent death or the recent
death of a loved one? Etc.?
Talk to Jesus about
your struggles. You don’t have to go through it alone. Jesus is waiting
upon your request.
“Do you want to be
well?”
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