Do You Want to be Made Well?

Reading Time: 4 Minutes

God is personal and personally concerned about you.

John 5.1-5 – After this there was a festival of the Jews, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem.

2 Now in Jerusalem by the Sheep Gate there is a pool, called in Hebrew Beth-zatha, which has five porticoes. 3 In these lay many invalids — blind, lame, and paralyzed. 5 One man was there who had been ill for thirty-eight years.

I am drawn to specific locations and people. There is a festival of the Jews, the Sheep Gate, and a man who had been paralyzed for 38 years.

Some people see God as a force or a power or in philosophical terms, the Unmoved Mover. Jesus shows us exactly who God is. He is a personal Being, who comes to people in specific locations and addresses our needs.

In this instance we see that God is drawn to the hurting, hopeless, and paralyzed of the world. In a world where it is so easy to overlook people, our personal God comes to us with healing and the offer of his presence and grace.

Do you want to be made well?

John 5.6-7 – When Jesus saw him lying there and knew that he had been there a long time, he said to him, “Do you want to be made well?” 7 The sick man answered him, “Sir, I have no one to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up; and while I am making my way, someone else steps down ahead of me.”

Is it possible that some people don’t want to get well?

Change experts, Kegan and Lahey, write that if a doctor tells ten heart patients that they must change their diet and exercise or they will die, seven of the ten won’t change. What are we doing that is unhealthy, but we continue to do it? Do we really want to be made well?

The man Jesus met had been paralyzed for 38 years. His response to Jesus’ question was to give an excuse for why he was in his present condition. He was hopelessly looking to the pool for help, when Jesus was standing right at this side.

Let’s make today a “no excuse” day, if Jesus is calling us to spiritual, emotional, and physical health.

When our will positively responds to God’s word, the power of God is released.

John 5.8-9 – Jesus said to him, “Stand up, take your mat and walk.” 9 At once the man was made well, and he took up his mat and began to walk.

Jesus told the man to do the very thing he had been unable to do for 38 years. He said, “Stand up, take your mat and walk.”

I assume that the paralyzed man tried to obey Jesus’ command. The Bible doesn’t say anything about the man’s inside thinking, but we see the effect of what we believe to be the man’s faith in Jesus’ word.

Here is one thing we do know. When God reveals his will to us and when we agree to do his will, it opens the door for God’s power to be released.

No matter how difficult agreeing with Jesus may be, align your life with his will and see his power in action.

Your Turn

Let’s give serious thought to Jesus’ question, “Do you want to be made well?” Do we resist good direction from health care providers and God, himself? How can we be like this man and align our will with the stated direction of our Lord? Let’s do it and see the power of God released for our benefit.

Today’s Prayer

Dear God, today I accept your will for the thing I feel is impossible that it is possible with your power. I take your direction in the realm of my health (spiritual, emotional, and physical), knowing that your power will be there for my good.