You
cannot fix what you do not understand.
That is true of electronics, cars, furnaces, sewing
machines, and even
your Spiritual life.
To
sort
out two key misunderstandings that often hold us back from God’s
blessings,
consider an incident in John 5.
The
chapter opens at the pool of Bethesda in Jerusalem. People came to this pool
hoping to be cured
of various ailments. The
belief was that
God would send an angel to stir the water and, when that happened,
the first
person in the pool was healed. As
Jesus walked
by, he began a conversation with a man who had been coming to the
pool for
thirty-eight years.
At
one
point, Jesus asked him, “Do you want to get well?” (verse 5). That sounds like a rude
question, but it
implies two important truths.
First,
if anything good is going to happen, we must participate in the
change. Faith is not a
passive activity. God is never
going to force his blessings on us.
We
cannot sit around and expect God to cater to us. That will never work! We must be part of the
process.
Once
we
choose to actively follow, then we learn the second truth: God’s
power is much
greater than we believe or know. When
the man says he wants to be healed, Jesus says, “Get up!” (verse
8). I love that!
No ceremony. No
incantation. Jesus simply
commands the man to get up and
he does!
Do
you
believe in a God like that? Do
you believe
in a God who can do anything? Too
often
I hear Christians saying, “Well, I don’t think God will do much
here”. Even when we do not
say it, we act as if we
are on our own and have no help. In
that
case, we are the limiting factor.
Ephesians
3:20-21 says, “Now to him who can do immeasurably more than all we
ask or
imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him
be glory in
the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations forever
and ever!
Amen.” When we get it
right, we
understand that nothing is beyond hope because God’s power is
immeasurable.
God
will not bless us in any great way as long as we do nothing and
believe that he
can do nothing.
Change
those two beliefs and everything changes.
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