Pick it up.

I am pretty sick of myself. My excuses. It's repulsive.

John 5:1-15 recounts the experience of a man who was an "invalid" (the Bible doesn't tell whether he was paralyzed, blind, or lame, etc...) for 38 years. He laid beside some kind of pool that was apparently stirred by an angel of God every now and then...the first person in the pool would recieve the physical healing they longed for. Can you imagine being there for 38 years, and every time, seeing someone else healed instead of yourself? I'm sure I'd be pretty bitter, unenthused, and full of excuses!
So, Jesus came along to this man and asked him, "Do you want to get well?" (John 5:6). That might have struck this man as an insult, I'm not sure, but...I'd probably have thought...'Okay, I've been laying here for almost 40 years, and you're asking me if I want to get well!?!?'...
Jesus' reply after he answered was "Get up! Pick up your mat, and walk!" (John 5:8)
What strikes me as amazing first of all, is that Jesus came in and did the unexpected. Who tells a lame man to "get up and walk!"??? In a sense, He defied all of the rules of this healing pool. He healed this man. This invalid wasn't the first in the pool, either. And, the way I read this, it seems like this man provided Christ with an excuse. His response when Jesus asked him the initial question: "Sir, I have no one to help me into the pool when the water is stirred..." (John 5:7a). A valid excuse for a lame/paralytic!
I've been wondering to myself: Amanda, what is your excuse? Why don't you just get up? Actually, it's not really myself thinking these things, it's the Holy Spirit guiding and challenging me! Anyway, I am sick of my own excuses. God is first in my life, and no excuse will do. I want to keep Him first, and I'm afraid that Satan is just gonna have to shove all of the competition down his own sorry throat. I want the best. That is Christ, and Christ is all.

The trouble here is: I can't get up myself. It takes Christ, the omnipotence of Christ to give me the strength I need to get up. Sin has paralyzed me, blinded me, or whatever other metaphor you want to use. I can't get the healing by myself. But Christ has come along, and asked if I want to get well. He doesn't want my excuses. He only deserves my praise just because of who He is!!!

This has been resting on my heart for a while now.

I'm abandoning that mat of excuses.
I am called to rise up and WALK in the truth and the light of Christ.

pensive
alh