OvercomeSample

Knocking on the Door to Change—and Trusting God Will Answer

THE LIE: “I can never change.”

THE TRUTH: True change is possible, and it begins with wanting to be well.

We have to want to change in order to change. We must have a desire to get better, to be free, to get well, to get on with life. It seems even Jesus knew this when He asked a crippled man a simple question one day: “Do you want to get well?” (John 5:6).

Maybe you’ve lost hope. Maybe you’ve all but given up and given in to what feels like the inevitable. But don’t miss one small detail in this Bible story: the crippled man hadn’t walked in thirty-eight years, yet there he was, sitting by the healing pool. He was still showing up, day after day, perhaps out of habit, hoping for a miracle. Does this describe you? Fatigued from your failure, worn out from worrying, tired of trying . . . but somehow still hanging on? That’s a good thing!

It’s easy for us to get used to dysfunction and sympathy. Although this man may have said he wanted to be healed, inside he may have secretly succumbed to what he assumed was the inevitable. I’ve been like this for thirty-eight years, he may have told himself. Things will never change. But things did change once the man met Jesus. 

Jesus’s way of lovingly calling the man to a place of decision was found in His asking the question. Jesus stirred something up in the man that had all but died as he suffered decade after decade of disease and disability. Jesus’s question resurrected this man: he could change, and life could be different. Jesus’s question was a call to action - inviting the man to decide if he really wanted a way out of his predicament. 

The man then explained why he believed his situation was hopeless. It was important that the man spoke his experience to Jesus, because we can see how Christ responds with an invitation to action: “Then Jesus said to him, ‘Get up! Pick up your mat and walk,’” (John 5:8).

Do you want to change? Do you need a second chance, a gigantic do-over? You’ll need Someone bigger and stronger than you to do it for you, just like the discouraged paralytic who had a valid excuse to stay crippled for the rest of his life. When you meet Jesus, there are no more excuses. He is your way out.

What part of your life needs to change? Where do you need a touch from Jesus? Are you willing to act when Jesus calls you to participate in your healing?