Relational Devotion #5 [Do you want to get well?]

Hi, Everyone.
I trust you had a good weekend. Tomorrow is Election Day, and I would encourage you to pray and fast one meal today, to intercede for the election and the state and future of this country. The Bible is our guidebook, and it tells us how we should live. It also tells us that, one day, we will each give an account of how we lived here on earth, our every deed, and that includes our voting deeds. Vote the Bible, and you can't go wrong.

John 5:6-8
"When Jesus saw [the paralyzed man lying by the pool of Bethesda] and knew he had been ill for [38 years], He asked him, 'Would you like to get well?' 'I can't, sir,' the sick man said, 'for I have no one to put me into the pool when the water bubbles up. Someone else always gets there ahead of me.' Jesus told him, 'Stand up, pick up your mat, and walk!'"

     In Jesus' day there was a pool where people went, hoping to experience miraculous healing. Can you imagine the surprise this hopelessly-paralyzed man must have experienced when he heard Jesus ask him, "Would you like to get well?" Perhaps this was the first time anyone responded with "Duh!"  Surely the man felt frustrated that he had gone as far as he could, was so close to the place where healing could happen, yet, year after year, nothing changed.
     Nothing had changed, so it was easy for this paralyzed man to answer Jesus' question "Would you like to get well?" with, "I can't...for I have no one to put me into the [water]..."  Jesus wanted to know that the man had done all he could do. The paralyzed man needed to know that Jesus would do what he could not. The result? Jesus commanded, the man responded, and he walked!

What this has to do with weight loss:  When someone lives year after year after year with the physical and emotional results of overeating, it is easy to become so discouraged that you doubt that anything can change. However, there is always hope for a changed body, a changed life.

Today, hear Jesus ask you, "Do you want to get well?"  If your honest answer is "Yes," prove that by doing all you can do, each day, and then trust Him to meet you and take you the rest of the way. Listen to Tonya Ferguson singing, "I Can't Make It On My Own," and make it your prayer today. http://www.godtube.com/view_video.php?viewkey=d06474593700d2 931e0a

Blessings,
Mary