Hey guys! I’m amazed at the feedback from this particular topic. I got messages from people on social media talking about how God is helping them through this topic and I’m so glad!! I’m so glad that we want to become healthy people, healthy Christians , that way we can impact our world more effectively. Please pardon me for posting late today.
How are you? How’s your heart? I travelled to the Eastern Cape a couple of weeks ago. So we had a stop over by a garage and I was talking to the cashier, I asked her ,”Are you happy? How are you? How’s your heart?” she almost started crying. Her eyes were teary and she said ,”I have never heard that kind of question. Nobody has ever asked me that. I don’t know if I’m happy but thank you for asking.” Eh I wanted to give her a big hug. How many people does she have in her life and do they know this? That she feels that way? As I was walking away I thought of how many people in the world, in my circle, in my family , who are just looking to have a conversation about it. By “it” I mean, people dying to talk about their pain or experiences and they have no one to talk to. How many people want to be checked up on because they’re having a hard time?
I’m just not an open person. I am quite sociable but for me to actually speak and say “I’m having a hard time!” Is so hard for me. I think many of us have not been able to address the wound because we don’t speak? We shut it in. We thug it out. We have become emotional Batistas. We shut people out and we don’t understand that we need them; that the people we are pushing away will oneday go away. I am learning to speak, to learn to give my friends a chance to be there for me when they can, to tear down the walls l built because I was protecting myself from being wounded.
One of the reasons why we seem to be stuck in pain is we don’t believe we can truly be healed. We have had it for so long we can’t relate to life without pain. When people say they’re joyful we don’t even know what it means and so we entertain the thought of pain as “home” ; as “default mode” ; as “normal”. You meet someone who has been raped more than twice and they can say stuff life “life happens” or “these things happen” , you then realise ah, because of the length of the time it took to heal and the many times they were wounded, they have automatically locked into the box that tags , “Accept it. Pain is part of life. Just keep going”. It’s hard for a limping man to keep going. He surely wants to sit and rest for a while yes?
I have a question for you. Do you really want to be healed? Or do you like your life as it is? Posting about pain? Is it okay if you were to live like this till you die? If it’s okay then you even need more help for not realising a need for change.
“When Jesus saw him lying there, he knew that the man had been crippled for a long time. Jesus said to him, “Do you truly long to be well?””
John 5:6 TPT
When Jesus saw a man who needed healing , He asked the man a question. He didn’t assume the man wanted it. He didn’t just heal him. He asked him “Do you truly long to be well?” Someone can say, “But Jesus , he is by the pool obviously he’s there for healing.” Just like many people flood counselling rooms and we assume they’re looking for healing but they just like to talk about it. Many people were by the pool! A group of friends with the same story! Others got healed but he remained there 38 years! He lost time because he was not healed. You lose more than the man, you lose time. He could’ve made so many memories, did so many things, but year after year he sat on a mat, the legs remained crippled. My darling you must desire it! You must long for it, truly! How long has it been sitting by the pool while others finally find joy? How long has it been?
Why is Jesus asking someone he found in a hospital if he wants to be well? I really picture that place as a hospital because the bible says many ailing people were found there. So why ask if you can see the need? Because unless the “needy” sees the “need” there’s no need to help them. Unless we realise that we need help, we won’t get the help. Unless we understand that we cannot go on like this, we will keep going on like that. It’s a conscious decision to come to .. Am l bleeding? Do l truly long to be made whole? I can tell you right now, many many many people, depressed, hurt, angry, don’t want to be made whole…. They are okay with the attention that comes from people .. they are fine as long as they have a mat and a cup to beg at Bethesda. No family, It is time to go forward.
“Since my people are crushed, I am crushed; I mourn, and horror grips me. Is there no balm in Gilead? Is there no physician there? Why then is there no healing for the wound of my people?”
Jeremiah 8:21-22 NIV
Why then is there no healing for the wound? Is there no God in heaven? Can’t He help us? He can family but here’s the missing piece… Do you truly want to be healed?