Thursday, October 25, 2012

Pick up your mat and walk!




I love that with Jesus, we don't need to explain ourselves, he doesn't want to hear our pity party about our past. The way people have hurt us, disappointed us, or let us down. In fact, Jesus came to crash our beat downs, misunderstandings, complaining, excuse-making parties. It's not that He is apathetic towards our situations, the Lord cares for us and comforts us in all our troubles. It's only that He knows everything about our lives already 
Lord, you have examined my heart
    and know everything about me.
You know when I sit down or stand up.
    You know my thoughts even when I’m far away.
You see me when I travel
    and when I rest at home.
    You know everything I do.
You know what I am going to say
    even before I say it, Lord.
You go before me and follow me.
    You place your hand of blessing on my head.
Such knowledge is too wonderful for me,
    too great for me to understand! Psalm 139 1-6


Have you ever felt paralyzed? We're afraid of screwing it up, of misunderstanding Him, of disappointing him? Or is it a little different: Have you been hurt & scared to move on? Maybe your life hasn't turned out the way you thought it would & someone let you down and you don't know what to do "next." Maybe you aren't feeling like a "good Christian" for some sin you've been hiding lately, that cannot be hidden by the way (Your Father knows you intimately, Psalm 139)
 No matter the reason, I wonder if we are like the guy in John 5



One of the men lying there had been sick for thirty-eight years. When Jesus saw him and knew he had been ill for a long time, 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.”


I love Jesus, "When Jesus saw him and knew(he was aware of his situation and his past) he had been ill for a long time and yet he asked anyway, "Would you like to get well?" The man laying there had to have heard about this man Jesus! The miracles, signs and wonders! Yet he still replied, "I can't sir....someone else always gets there first." Thankfully the Lord didn't join the pity party, seriously, literally says in the verse before this, "All kinds of sick people, blind, lame, paralyzed lay on the porches." Now, I know these people we're truly sick and hurting & the Lord had compassion and came to heal them but I feel like a few of them may have been content laying on that porch, pleading, " We have no one to put us in the pool." Yet to this man the Lord spoke to, He commanded him, " Stand up, pick up your mat, and WALK!" 
& He did. It says he was healed instantly, picked up his mat and began walking. Some people tried to stop him(like yourself or others try to stop you too) to which he replied," The man told me, pick up your mat and walk." I love that response!! This man, who had no faith, simply responds:" I was told to get up and walk, so I did." 
Is the Lord telling you to "Pick up your mat and walk"? Did we hear the Lord the first time when he told us:
Pick up your mat and walk, you are Forgiven

Pick up your mat and walk, you have been Redeemed
Pick up your mat and walk, you are made clean by My blood
Pick up your mat and walk, leave the past in the past.
Pick up your mat and walk, into forgiveness for others 

__You can fill in the blanks with whatever the Lord is ASKING you as he asked that man, if he WANTED to be healed? Do you want to be well?  Some of us, in a way, sometimes are telling the Lord we're content in it. Whatever is hindering us from being closer to Him by refusing to pick up that mat and walk with Him. But I think some of us are done being lame (pun intended) & realize, when the Son of God is standing before you asking if you want to be free..You  just pick up your mat and walk.


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