Do You Want to Get Well?
January 24, 2022
“I’m freezing and I’m hungry. I’ve got no where to go tonight and it’s supposed to snow. My wallet was stolen last week - my ID, the few dollars I had, and my phone. My boyfriend is sleeping around with other women, and I have no one I can trust. Will you please help. Please! I need money. I need a phone. I need a place to stay.”
The cracks in my heart started to tear open all over again as the words soaked in. This is my inner response each time I absorb the stories of the homeless who walk through our doors.
I work the front desk of a church. Regarded in our community as a church very benevolent to the less-fortunate, we are often visited by our homeless neighbors.
In this particular instance, all I had available to give was a listening ear and a $20 Walmart gift card. I figured that would help with food for a few days. She thanked me before uttering these words on her way out:
“I’m really hoping to get housing through Doors of Hope [a local nonprofit committed to helping women break cycles of addition and homelessness - among other things]. They offered me a house twice, and I turned them down both times because I wanted to stay with my boyfriend. I really hope they offer me a housing solution again. I think I’ll take it this time.”
That’s when it clicked. Jesus’ words surfaced in my mind - the words He spoke to the paralytic man who lay at the pool of Bethesda. “Do you want to get well?” (John 5:6)
This woman standing before me, she was offered a lifeline twice, but chose to pass it up. “Does she want to get well?” I wonder to myself.
My homeless friend wanted a hand-out, but wasn’t sure she was ready for a hand-up. We can do the same. We can cry out to God, beseeching Him to do something for us (like he’s a magic genie), yet deep down, we are unwilling to fully submit to Him - unwilling to change. We can loathe ourselves for our situation, yet continue to return to our sin - never breaking free or putting it to death. Proverbs 26:11 puts it this way, “As a dog returns to its vomit, so also a fool repeats his foolishness.”
Healing requires more that just a quick-fix for your issues. It requires a fix that is bone-deep. So many don’t accept it because they aren’t willing to turn from their ingrained patterns and make a change. And that’s the key to true freedom. Admitting your way isn’t working and submitting to the better way. Seeking forgiveness for the miles you clocked going down your own path, and changing courses with a new leader at the helm. That is submission. That is true repentance.
So here’s my question to you, friend: Do you want to get well?
Life
Do you remember the story of Jesus feeding the crowd of 5,000 with just a few loaves and fish? The day after this miracle, the crowd sought Him out to see what other cool miracles He might do. Jesus’ words were challenging, “Truly I tell you, you are looking for me, not because you saw the signs, but because you ate the loaves and were filled. Don’t work for the food that perishes but for the food that lasts for eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you, because God the Father has set his seal of approval on Him.” (John 6:26-27)
Basically, Jesus calls them out saying, “y’all aren’t looking for me because you see me as the Messiah, you’re looking for me because you want another meal!” Like my homeless friend, they were looking for a hand-out, not a hand-up.
This 6th chapter of John is the same chapter where Jesus quotes one of his famous I Am statements: “I am the bread of life. No one who comes to me will ever be hungry, and no one who believes in me will ever be thirsty again.”
What he offers is more sustaining than a simple meal of bread and fish. He offers us life: yes, it’s eternal life in heaven, but we also have the ability to experience life here on earth. Life of freedom from the bondage of sin. Our flesh is in entrenched in sin, but the Spirit of God gives life (Jn 6:63). The all-powerful presence of the Spirit makes His home in you. The same Spirit that raised Jesus from the dead LIVES. IN. YOU. And we so desperately need Him.
God set forth a plan to give us life before time and space were even in existence.
1. He knew we would fall.
2. He knew we would need saving, and we couldn’t do it on our own.
3. He knew He would need to send a Savior to pay our debt from sin.
4. He knew we would need life offered by His Spirit. In fact, God even foretold this to us some 600 years before Jesus came on the scene. He told the prophet Ezekiel to pen these words on God’s behalf:
“I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; I will remove your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. I will place my Spirit within you and cause you to follow my statutes and carefully observe my ordinances.” Ezekiel 36:26-27
The Spirit gives life. The Spirit produces steams of living water deep within us.
I don’t know about you, but not only do I want to be well, I want life.
Only the Spirit can do this work. We try on our own and fail. We try to muscle through, but aren’t strong enough. When we finally make it to the end of ourselves and realize our ineptitude, that’s when the Spirit comes to our rescue and conforms us to Christ through his indwelling.
“For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death.” Romans 8:2
Reflection & Application
This area is set aside for some personal reflection. Let’s work through God’s Word together and find how the Spirit gives life and peace. Grab a pen and notebook, and spend some time in Romans 8:1-11. I’ll list some reflection questions for you to pray through. I’d love for you to comment with something you learned!
The first step in going to the Word is prayer. Invite the Holy Spirit to give you wisdom which is a gift that he will give in abundance each time you ask! Spend a few minutes in prayer.
At the moment of salvation, the debt for our sin is paid immediately, but the transforming work of Christ within us is a process. In your day-to-day, what do you fix your mind on? Things of the flesh - living with “self” in mind? Or things of the Spirit - allowing the example of Jesus to set your pace?
“And if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead lives in you, then he who raised Christ from the dead will also bring your mortal bodies to life through his Spirit who lives in you.” Are you living like this is true?
What is something you see about God in this passage? It can be something new he has illuminated or something you have previously known, but maybe you see it a little clearer. If you are feeling ambitious, why don’t you start a running list in your notebook, and add to it each time you read Scripture?
