A Faith Journal

This is a more recent photo of the pool of Bethesda.

When we are suffering, it is hard to be joyous. Our focus is on ourselves or how to get out of the pain. We start to lose hope usually because we’ve taken our focus off God. However, there are also times when we pray and seek help, but God says not yet. We can struggle to keep our faith in those times. Either way joy is but a glimmer in our hearts then. The next two days we are going to look at examples of this in the Bible. Today we’ll look into when Jesus heals a lame man (John 5:1-15).

When Jesus heals the lame man after 38 years of suffering, the man had lost hope of being healed. He had positioned himself in a place he thought could heal him if he was just fast enough. However, he had no one to help him so he was never fast enough. When Jesus came along and asked the man if he wanted to get well, there is more than the ability to walk that is being offered. During this time, those unable to take care of themselves financially through a trade were given a panhandler career of sorts. It was the responsibility of the community to give those individuals support as they could.

So, when Jesus asked if the man wanted to be well, he was asking the man to change everything about his life that he had known for the last 38 years. That was Jesus offering him hope but also a struggle. He was at least 38 years old and had no real skills that we knew of or family/friends to help him. His life was going to change and never did Jesus say to him that it would be easy. The man quickly did as Jesus asked and joyously walked away from the pool.

I think that from that day forward, the man would face his struggles with a bit more hope because he knew he had ben saved from a hopeless life by God. With that mindset, joy is possible through every struggle.

Today, if you consider yourself a Christian, thank God for saving you from a hopeless life when He sent Jesus as our savior. If you are still questioning life with God in it, reach out to me. I’d love to chat with you.

God,
We thank you for sending Jesus to be our savior. He has saved us from a hopeless life without You in it. We are free to experience joy because our life is changed from our past. Thank you! In Jesus’ name, Amen.

I’m not sure I’ll repost the next post in this series as it states above, but I will eventually share it on my site, at least.