Read: John 5:1-9

He said to him, “Do you want to be healed?” (v. 6)

She never knew it, but behind her back people called her Boo-Hoo, because she was always talking about how badly she’d been treated in life. She’d been cheated, mistreated, shortchanged, passed by, unfairly dealt with. Other people always got the big break she deserved. Nobody gave her a chance. Nobody understood her. Nobody appreciated her. It’s like she had a tape player in her head, and whenever she opened her mouth out came this sad song. Boo-Hoo.

“Do you want to be healed?” Jesus asks. And immediately, out comes the tale of woe: “I have no one to put me in the pool when the water is stirred up . . . while I am going another steps down before me.” Jesus doesn’t offer sympathy. He doesn’t commiserate. All Jesus wants to know is: “Do you want to be healed?”

Stop making excuses. Stop feeling sorry for yourself. Life isn’t always fair, and it isn’t always fun, and sometimes we get taken advantage of, pushed out of the way. It happens.

But what Jesus said to the man at Bethesda pool he says to you. You may have been this way for a long time, but you don’t have to remain this way. Your case isn’t closed. Things can be different for you. You can begin a new life, here and now. The question is not whether that is possible. The question is: Is that what you want? Do you want to be healed?

Prayer:

Lord, help me to begin my life anew, here and now.

Author: Lou Lotz

https://woh.org/