Jesus First

Have you ever waited a long time for an answer that felt like it was never going to come? Have you shared a concern to a friend, only to discover that you are now more impatient than you were before you shared your fears? Have you talked about your problem to friends more than you have talked to God about it?

John 5 has a story about a man who was waiting for healing for 38 years of his life. 38 years is a long time! He sat by a pool waiting and waiting to get into that pool to receive his healing. Jesus comes to the pool and he talks to the man. The man gives him his reason for why he hasn’t been healed yet. Almost as excuses. “I have no one to help me!” “Others are getting in ahead of me!”

Now, I don’t know this man’s condition, and I don’t know how handicapped he was, but I do resonate with the “pity party” that he was having.

“No one is helping me!” “I can’t do this on my own!” “Why can’t it happen now?” “Why do I have go through this?” “This is not the way it is supposed to go!”

Too often, instead of seeking out the help from the One who can help me, I try to do it on my own, Or, I seek counsil from others rather then going to the One who can handle it without me!

I’ve recently heard a question, from Proverbs 31 ministry, that I’ve begun to ask myself before I share what’s going on in my life. “Have you talked to God about this as much as you have talked to others about this?”

I’m in a “stage” of learning to “let God do battle for me” rather than trying to battle it on my own. I’ll share this, the more I surrender to Him, the more peace I feel, and the better the outcome to my problems. His plan is always better than anything I could muster up. He is not surprised by anything, and He will walk with us and if we surrender it to Him, we can just sit back and watch Him go to work!

Does that mean that I won’t still think about it? NO! , but instead of fear, I can talk to Him and ask Him to handle it and step aside to let Him run my day better than I ever could.

So today, instead of worrying about my problems, I’m going to say, “Lord, run my day and do battle for me!”

John 5:2-9.  Now there is in Jerusalem by the Sheep Gate a pool, which is called in Hebrew, Bethesda, having five porches.  In these lay a great multitude of sick people, blind, lame, paralyzed, waiting for the moving of the water.  For an angel went down at a certain time into the pool and stirred up the water; then whoever stepped in first, after the stirring of the water, was made well of whatever disease he had. Now a certain man was there who had an infirmity thirty-eight years. When Jesus saw him lying there, and knew that he already had been in that condition a long time, He said to him, “Do you want to be made well?” The sick man answered Him, “Sir, I have no man to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up; but while I am coming, another steps down before me.”  Jesus said to him, “Rise, take up your bed and walk.”  And immediately the man was made well, took up his bed, and walked.