Feb 26: Waiting on healing
John 5:1-15 TNIV from Biblegateway.com
1 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 and which is surrounded by five covered colonnades. 3-4 Here a great number of disabled people used to lie—the blind, the lame, the paralyzed.5 One who was there had been an invalid for thirty-eight years. 6 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?”
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.
Devotional Comments:
When I read this passage, I was reminded of a specific area in my life when I had to wait for healing of my friend. I have been fortunate enough to have been born healthy, however, my best friend since I was 8 years old, hasn’t been that fortunate.
She realized something was seriously wrong when, in the fall of grade 9, Nicole got a horrible headache that wouldn’t go away. For the next four months she went through the struggle of the headaches taking over her life, along with numbness in her arms and legs and also dizziness. About eight months after her headaches started, Nicole started blacking out ten to twelve times a day.
Every time I was with her, either her mom or I would be holding her arm because there was no way of telling when she could blackout. I prayed every night for Jesus to heal her. It was almost two years before we finally had some sort of answer from God.
Just like the people waiting by the water for healing, Nicole’s family and I waited for God’s healing hand. The difficulty is that Nicole is not cured. She still chooses to live life the way that Jesus intended it. Sometimes God’s healing does not come for a long time or in the form we asked for. We choose to be patient and faithful. When God’s healing does come, we need to run into the streets proclaiming the good deeds of the Lord.
Allison Gilbert
Pray for the strength and perseverance to wait on God.