Monday November 23, 2020

Begin this new day by praying this prayer out loud. As you are able, consider kneeling as a physical expression of your commitment to Jesus as Lord of your life and the one you desire to lead you this day. Alternatively, you might consider placing a hand over your heart as you pray this prayer.

God of rescue and restoration, thank You for Your great and beautiful mission in the world. Here I am Lord, fill me with Your Spirit and send me.

Sometime later, Jesus went up to Jerusalem for one of the Jewish festivals. Now there is in Jerusalem near the Sheep Gate a pool, which in Aramaic is called Bethesda and which is surrounded by five covered colonnades. Here a great number of disabled people used to lie—the blind, the lame, the paralyzed. One who was there had been an invalid for thirty-eight years. When Jesus saw him lying there and learned that he had been in this condition for a long time, he asked him, “Do you want to get well?” “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.” Then Jesus said to him, “Get up! Pick up your mat and walk.” At once the man was cured; he picked up his mat and walked.
John 5:1-9

Jesus notices this one long-suffering man in a huge crowd of suffering at the pool of Bethesda and asks him, “Do you want to get well?”

The suffering man doesn’t simply say, “Yes.” Instead, he gives Jesus details on what he thinks will heal him – the water of the pool. The man is right in assuming that Jesus wants to help him, but wrong in assuming that Jesus needs direction. Jesus came up with a miraculous healing plan that was well beyond the man’s imagination.

Quite often, our best prayer is simply: “Yes! God, please help me!”

Have you ever given God directions on how to help or heal you? What kind of limitations does this way of thinking place on God?

What would you say if Jesus walked up to you today and said, “Do you want to get well?”

When you are finished with your time of reflection, close out this time with this prayer.

Father, help me to live this day to the full,
being true to You in every way.
Jesus, help me to give myself away to others,
being kind to everyone I meet.
Spirit, help me to love the lost,
proclaiming Christ in all I do and say.
Amen.