Get Up!

Sometime later, Jesus went up to Jerusalem for a feast of the Jews. 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. Here a vast number of disabled people used to lie - the blind, the lame, the paralyzed. One who was there had been an invalid for thirty-eight years. 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?". "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. "Then Jesus said to him, "Get up! Pick up your mat and walk." At once, the man was cured; he picked up his mat and walked.

John 5:1-9

Here we have a man who has had the same problem for the last 38 years! He became so problem-focused that he didn’t see WHO it was standing in front of him! He didn’t recognize that the answer was right there. Does this sound familiar? We have Jesus in us, full of answers and direction, but we become so focused on the problem that we cannot see the answers. Focusing on your problems can keep the answers from coming to you.

The answer is inside of you, you just must be still enough to hear it. Jesus is saying to you "Get up! Pick up your mat and walk. What is holding you back from picking yourself up and going forward? Maybe it’s a relationship, a toxic friendship, a bad habit, or poor choices.

We get bogged down with the problems, they become pits with walls, and we cannot see ourselves free from them. But Jesus wants you to get up from that place and move on. Let the past go, let the failures go, dust them off, and focus on a new goal, a new plan, and a better decision.

How? One moment at a time; One day at a time. Get up and get going again! Do not let bad choices stop you from getting up and moving forward. Reset your goals and plans, keep moving forward.