In John 5, there is a great story about how Jesus healed a man that had been lame for thirty eight years. He was stuck in a situation because no one was there to push him into the pool of Bethesda where he could have been healed of his infirmity. Instead of wiggling his way into the pool, he continued day after day, looking at his mess, and depending on others to change the situation for him, when he had the answer right there in front of him.
So today’s word is, “wiggle, do something, but pick up your mess and move on.” It took Jesus to come to this man and ask him, “Do you really want to get well?” Jesus was amazed that this lame man allowed himself to stay in that situation when he could have changed his circumstances with just a little wiggle, just a little effort, and the lame man could have gotten into that pool and been healed.
So often in our lives we are so close to our victory, so close to the answer. Instead of wiggling and putting ourselves into the pool, or into God’s plan for us, we lay there and feel sorry for ourselves, expecting someone else to do it for us. God has given us the answer; it’s found in Him! Today let’s wiggle and do what Jesus told the man to do: “Pick up your mess and walk and move on from here!”
Today I am picking up my mess and making it a message of God’s grace and power in my life. Because when we look to Him for all the answers we are forever changed by God’s transforming power!
For more than twelve years, Teresa Kemp has been involved in prison and jail ministry. Teresa uses her personal trials to help others who have shared life experiences understand the hope that she found to live a meaningful, purposeful life in Jesus Christ. She is a dedicated ambassador in sharing the message of Jesus Christ throughout the world. Teresa is an ordained minister of the gospel of Jesus Christ through Victory Christian Center in Tulsa, Oklahoma. She has a degree in psychology from Florida Southern College and is the president and founder of Breaking Chains International, Inc., (BCI) a ministry dedicated to helping the lost through the gospel and reaching out to the hopeless, prisoners, orphans, and widows.