Take up Your Mat and Walk

Day 24 of 90 days Through the New Testament 

Daily Reading John  4-6

   I’ve read this story in John 5 so many times. There’s this man who had been lying by the pool of Bethesda for thirty-eight years-thirty-eight years!-waiting on something to change. He kept waiting for the water to stir, for someone to help him get there, for the perfect day and the perfect moment to finally be healed.

And I’ll be honest... I’ve been that person.

   I’ve sat on my own “mat” before, waiting for everything to line up just right before I moved. Waiting until I felt ready, qualified, or strong enough. Waiting for someone else to notice, to invite me, to help me step into what God already told me was mine. But then Jesus walks in. And just like He did for that man, He doesn’t wait for the water to move, He is the Living Water. He simply says, “Get up.”

    When I picture this story, I imagine Jesus looking at that man with eyes full of compassion, maybe even a little smile, like, “You don’t have to wait another minute. I’m right here.” And I hear Him saying that to us, too. Because sometimes we think we’re waiting on God,  but really, He’s waiting on us to pick up the mat we’ve been lying on and walk in faith.

  Maybe for you, that mat looks like fear. Or comfort. Or comparison. Maybe it’s the voice in your head that says, “I’ll do it when the timing’s right.” But friend, sometimes the timing is right now. Jesus didn’t tell the man to wait for the perfect moment, He told him to move.

And when he did, everything changed.

  So if you’ve been sitting on the sidelines, waiting for a sign, consider this it. The same Jesus who spoke to that man by the pool is speaking to you now: Get up. Take up your mat. And walk.

What mat have you been lying on, fear, comfort, waiting, excuses?What if you trusted Jesus enough to get up and walk today...

Love Pastor Mandy 

ArkofHope