AUTHOR: BOLA FOLAKEMI PRAISE
JOHN 5: 1-11
“Some time 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. 3 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.’ ”
At a point during the cause of our lives we are faced with situations that are overwhelming. We find ourselves in a place where it seems we are stagnated, we are not making progress. We feel that we need help and assistance which is not forthcoming.
There are periods when we struggle to breakout of hardship and unpleasant situations, we tried all possible means but all into no avail.
Many looks for help from friends and families but help refused to come from them, because the families and friends need help themselves.
Many times we look for help in the wrong direction- and when we don’t get our desired result because we look in the wrong direction, we become frustrated and we give in to fate without making effort or trying harder.
The disappointment that many people faced in life has made them to be “handicapped” and become “crippled” to every good things of life. they have chosen stagnation over progress, and failure over fruitfulness.
In our text, the blind man at the pool was expecting help from the people around him to help lower him into the pool so that he could be healed. He felt disappointed when help did not come from them as he expected. The blind man accepted his fate and stayed at the pool for thirty eight years without any effort; before Jesus came to rescue him!
The blind man was helpless and hopeless because he looked in the wrong direction for help.
The word of God for you today is “Do not allow the situation of life to make you become hopeless.” Look in the right direction for help- Jesus is the help of the helpless and the hope of the hopeless. Do not accept the negative situation to overwhelm you.
Jesus is your sure hope and your ever present help in time of trouble. Call upon his name today, he is ready and willing to help you to get up from failure and stagnation, and walk you to your place of breakthrough and abundance. DO NOT EXPLAIN IT AWAY LIKE THE BLIND MAN- DON'T GIVE EXCUSES-DON'T JUSTIFY YOUR STAGNATION. GET UP AND WALK!
Do not let any problem stagnate you. With Jesus there will always be a way around your problem- Nothing can hold you bound if you don’t allow it- Get up and walk out of stagnation!
