Do You Want Healing?

John 5: 1-15

John 5:1-15New International Version (NIV)

The Healing at the Pool

5 Some time later, Jesus went up to Jerusalem for one of the Jewish festivals. 2 Now there is in Jerusalem near the Sheep Gate a pool, which in Aramaic is called Bethesda[a] and which is surrounded by five covered colonnades. 3 Here a great number of disabled people used to lie—the blind, the lame, the paralyzed. [4] [b] 5 One who was there had been an invalid for thirty-eight years. 6 When Jesus saw him lying there and had learned that he had been in this condition for a long time, he asked him, “Do you want to get well?”

7 “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.”

8 Then Jesus said to him, “Get up! Pick up your mat and walk.” 9 At once the man was cured; he picked up his mat and walked.

The day on which this took place was a Sabbath, 10 and so the Jewish leaders said to the man who had been healed, “It is the Sabbath; the law forbids you to carry your mat.”

11 But he replied, “The man who made me well said to me, ‘Pick up your mat and walk.’ ”

12 So they asked him, “Who is this fellow who told you to pick it up and walk?”

13 The man who was healed had no idea who it was, for Jesus had slipped away into the crowd that was there.

14 Later Jesus found him at the temple and said to him, “See, you are well again. Stop sinning or something worse may happen to you.” 15 The man went away and told the Jewish leaders that it was Jesus who had made him well.

This is a story of healing. You would think that a man that had been sick for thirty-eight years would have lost faith in being well again.
Maybe you think he would have been justified in thinking that he wasn't going anywhere and self-pity was a pleasant past-time.
Then Jesus... Isn' that how it usually is?
Just when things look most dreary... Just when you think you will be stuck for ages... Here comes Jesus to blow our minds and take our faith to the next level.

Especially when you are surrounded by a bunch of other sick people... Why not be okay with staying sick?

But Jesus...

Jesus picks out this one invalid out of ALL the sick people and asks him the million dollar question...

"Do you want to get well?"

I don't know what your story is, but I remember the night Jesus asked me the very same question...

"Don't you see you are sick my love? Aren't you sick of it? Don't you want to be well?", He spoke to my spirit.

I was sobbing and sweating, laying on the floor of my living room crying out to Him in response to my circumstances.

My circumstances showed I was unwell, and Jesus had the million dollar question...

I had the desperate reply... I cried out, "Heal me... Heal me!!!"

This invalid that Jesus had approached replied, but not giving an answer to His question.

The man responds, "Sir, 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!"

Have you given God that reply to His offer of healing before?

"But God, there is just no way... I have tried and there is always someone or something in the way that keeps me here where I lie..."

Smells like an excuse, but Jesus knows what the man needs... despite the man's attempt at avoiding having to answer Jesus' question...

Jesus commands him, "Get up! Pick up your mat and walk!"

The man does as Jesus asks without questioning him...

Receiving healing is a choice. You can either stay stuck where you are at, blaming everyone else for your stagnant state of being...

Or you can obey God and in that, you will receive healing and pick up your mat and walk out of that sickness.

It is a process for sure, and a daily choice if you want the healing our Lord has to offer.

It isn't easy, but it is good and it is unmatched.

The Great Physician is willing to perform the surgery, but you have to choose to get on the table.

It may mean we have to open some old wounds that haven't healed right, or let Him remove some things in our heart that are not of Him... Like bitterness or deceit.

But praise God! We serve a merciful, patient, and good God that is willing to do His part.

But we have to do ours.

Free will sucks sometimes. But if you choose Jesus, you win every time because He has already won the victory over sin and death.

How will you answer Jesus when He asks you, "Do you want to get well?"

Lord God, My Healer, the Great Physician,

I choose you and the perfect healing you offer. I want to be made well and I know you will be with me through the whole process and even after into eternity. 
Please help me to be obedient and follow you as you diagnose and remedy my hurts and sickness. 
Help me to grow closer to you as you care for me and love on me. Help me to depend on you to provide all my needs and rest in the fact that I can trust you. 
Help me to be comforted in knowing you love me no matter what condition I am in. 

In Jesus' precious name I pray, Amen.