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Article Archive |
2008
Do You Want to Get Well?
by Jim Morris
Every day was pretty much the same for the invalid. During the past 38 years he woke up and begged for anything that people were willing to give him.
The man spent his time laying at the pool of Bethesda but he did have a glimmer of hope. It was said that when the water stirred in the pool that the first person to get into it would be healed (John 5:1-5). Maybe it was medicinal springs feeding the pool. Maybe it was an angel sent from God to show His mercy. At any rate, someday he would be that person!
Can you see the man’s eyes scanning the surface of the water? Waiting. Longing. Hoping for a ripple that might signify that the water had been charged with healing power.
Perhaps the man reflected on how easy of a lifestyle he had. No one expected him to work. No one expected much from him at all. Instead, people gave things to him. They felt sorry for him in his crippled condition.
Then again, could anyone call it “living”? What would it be like to be whole again? What would it be like to have the strength to work, to love, to live again?
“Do you want to get well?”(5:6), asked the stranger with gentle eyes that pierced deep into the man’s soul. Who would ask such a question? Isn’t it obvious that an invalid would want to get well? After all, he was at the healing pool, wasn’t he?
“‘Sir,’ the invalid replied, ‘I have no one to help me into the pool when the water is stirred. While I am trying to get in, someone else goes down ahead of me’” (5:7).
“Then Jesus said to him, ‘Get up! Pick up your mat and walk’ At once the man was cured; he picked up his mat and walked” (5:8-9).
Do you feel that your life is hopeless? Maybe friends have told you how to find physical, emotional, or social healing. Maybe you have been waiting alongside “the pool” for a long time wondering how you ever got into such a mess, and how in the world you can ever get out of it again.
You may feel the same kind of fears and frustrations as the invalid. Your lifestyle is not good but it is familiar and tolerable. It has certain advantages, too. You may seem to take more than you give but is that really living? Ask yourself, “Can I give up the bad to receive the good?”
“Do you want to be healed?”
Jesus asks us the same question now as He looks into our hearts. He loves us more than we can comprehend or He would never ask such a question. Trust and obey Jesus and you will receive the hope of eternal life with Him in heaven.
“See, you are well again. Stop sinning or something worse may happen to you” (5:14).
04-30-08
# 18
