People sit around and dream of winning the lottery, inheriting great wealth, landing that dream job and just wishing for their ship to come in…waiting for a miracle. According to Webster, a miracle is an extraordinary event manifesting divine intervention in human affairs. In John 5 we read about a man who has been sick for thirty-eight years. He was lying near the pool at Bethesda hoping for a miracle. This man was unable to walk and we don’t know how he came to be in this condition, but it was dire. He would have needed help doing just about everything. A commonly-held belief was that occasionally an angel would stir the waters of the pool and whoever was able to get into the water first would be healed. However, this man’s disability kept him from being able to reach the pool first. Someone always beat him to the water, so he continued to lie near the pool waiting, waiting, waiting. When Jesus saw the man, he asked, “Do you want to be well?”

Scripture
Ex 15:26; Ps 33:6-9; Jn 5:2-3, 5-8, 10:27

Verses
(Jn 5:2-3, 5-7) Now there is in Jerusalem near the Sheep Gate a pool, which in Aramaic is called Bethesda and which is surrounded by five covered colonnades. Here a great number of people with disabilities used to lie… A man was lying there who had been sick for thirty-eight years. When Jesus saw the man and knew that he had been sick for such a long time, Jesus asked him, “Do you want to be well?” The sick man answered, “Sir, there is no one to help me get into the pool when the water starts moving. While I am coming to the water, someone else always gets in before me.”

Thought
At first, we wonder why Jesus asks a question when the answer seems so obvious. But is it? Jesus asked the man, and he asks you and me, “Do you want to be well?” The man responds with reasons (excuses) as to why he hasn’t gotten to the pool first, why he’s been kept at a distance. Sometimes we get so comfortable with our situation, paralysis, blindness, struggle, apathy, negativity, superficial relationships, sub-par marriage, ungodly behavior that we aren’t really bothered by it anymore. We often answer Jesus’ question with a resounding “no” by making excuses for our condition, procrastinating, and giving God only 50% when we know he requires our all. To experience a miracle, we must first be obedient to God. Jesus told the man to get up and get moving. The man did as Jesus commanded and was instantly cured, totally healed. Obedience always precedes the miraculous. We pray for a miracle and want God to be obedient to our requests, but it doesn’t work that way. God told Noah to build an ark, his obedience saved his family. The leper Naaman dipped seven times in the Jordan River at Jesus’ command and was healed. When we do what God calls us to do, the miraculous is unleashed in our lives. God is bigger than anything we face. Trust Him. Be obedient. Allow God to work in your life!

Questions
What miracles have you experienced or witnessed? Are you holding out and not obeying God in some area of your life? If so, what is holding you back? Why is obedience necessary for the miraculous to happen? Do you need a miracle in your life right now? If so, what are you asking of God? What is God asking of you?

Response
Pray for God to reveal to you any areas of your life where you need to be obedient. Determine to do what God asks, no matter the cost.

Pray
Dear God, keep me aligned with your will and your word. Guide my path and chart my course that I may live to the fullest and experience the miraculous in and through my life. In Jesus’ Name I pray, Amen.