Do You Want To Be Healed?

Sorry this is a little late, this is our passage for the week: John 5:1-14

¹Some time later, Jesus went up to Jerusalem for a feast of the Jews. ²Now there is in Jerusalem near the Sheep Gate a pool, which in Aramaic is called Bethesda^a]">[a] and which is surrounded by five covered colonnades. ³Here a great number of disabled people used to lie—the blind, the lame, the paralyzed.^b]">[b] ⁵One who was there had been an invalid for thirty-eight years. ⁶When 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."

⁸Then Jesus said to him, "Get up! Pick up your mat and walk." ⁹At once the man was cured; he picked up his mat and walked.
The day on which this took place was a Sabbath, ¹⁰and so the Jews said to the man who had been healed, "It is the Sabbath; the law forbids you to carry your mat."

¹¹But he replied, "The man who made me well said to me, 'Pick up your mat and walk.' "

¹²So they asked him, "Who is this fellow who told you to pick it up and walk?"

¹³The man who was healed had no idea who it was, for Jesus had slipped away into the crowd that was there.

¹⁴Later Jesus found him at the temple and said to him, "See, you are well again. Stop sinning or something worse may happen to you."

So sometimes I wonder what it would be like if I was not a Christian. If I didn't believe in God. If I didn't try to follow what the Bible said. And I think, that I would cause myself a world of pain. I think that I'd make choices that would feel rockin at the time and end up crushing my heart later. But then I think, I totally do that now. There are so many times were I set myself up for hurt now. We all do that... I know I'm not the only one. When I read this passage, I often want to be like "Jesus, you are crazy! Obviously he would want to be healed" but then aren't we the crazy ones? I strive to maintain control of my life all the time and I totally screw it up. I would much rather strive to follow Jesus, the God who declares that he has my best in mind. Do I want to be healed? Absolutely. And shoot, I mess up all the time. But I want to have faith. I strive to have faith to give up my control. It's totally a process. All I can think of is Matthew 16:24-25

²⁴Then Jesus said to his disciples, "If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. ²⁵For whoever wants to save his life^a]">[a] will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will find it.

I want to find life. And I think, no I know, that I have to choose to pursue that life.

So this week, I only have one question: Do you want to be healed?