Daily Bible Reading: 1 Samuel 25, 1 Corinthians 6, Ezekiel 4, John 5

Do You Want To Get Well?

Jesus came to the Bethesda Pool where miracles happened when the water was stirred once a year. (John 5) I don’t really understand why healings happened then, but they did and those that needed healing came, waiting so they could be the first person into the waters and get healed. There were people there with all sorts of infirmities: blind, lame, paralyzed. One man had been lying there for 38 years. Can you imagine that? Jesus walked up to this man and asked him “Do you want to get well.”

I find it interesting that instead of saying something like “Of course I want to get well.” Or “I really, really want to get healed,” the man started telling Jesus why he was still there unhealed after 38 years. “I don’t have anyone to help me get in the pool.” “While I’m still trying to get in someone else gets ahead of me.” Jesus ignored his excuses and told him “Get up! Pick up your mat and walk.” He was immediately healed and got up which is really a miracle because he hadn’t walked for 38 years.

The reaction of the Jews to this miracle is almost comical. Instead of marveling that a man lame for 38 years was walking, they told him that he was breaking the Sabbath by carrying his mat!! They were out to get Jesus, not so much because of the miracles he was doing, but because he was doing them on the Sabbath, and in their idea breaking the Sabbath law.

The Lord comes to us with the same question. “Do you want to get well?” Well, from our sin and the things that drag us down. Do you want to get well from the bitterness that poisons your life? Do you want to get well from the little things that drag you down and keep you from living a victorious Christian life? Do you want to get well from negative thinking? The list could go on and on.

In 1 Corinthians 6 Paul makes a statement that never ceases to thrill me. In verses 9-10 he itemizes a list of things that will keep us out of heaven: Sexual immorality, idolatry (which is putting anything in our lives before God), prostitution, homosexuality, thievery, greed, drunkenness, slandering and swindling. Then he says “And that is what some of you were, but you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.” In other words, when they heard the words, “Do you want to get well?” they didn’t offer any excuses they gladly accepted the healing that was offered. They no longer fit into the list of sins; they were washed, sanctified (set apart to God) and justified.

Let’s come to Jesus daily and let him heal us, wash us, sanctify us and justify us. Hide God’s Word in your heart so you will not sin. (Psa. 119:9). Let the Word cleanse you daily. (Eph. 5:26)

Do you want to get/be well?

Tomorrows Bible Reading - 1 Samuel, 1 Corinthians 7, Ezekiel 5, Jonh 6

God is good all the time,

Naomi Brinkman