Healing Choices: Do You Want to be Healed?

Posted : 9 Nov, 2009 11:01 PM

Healing Choices: Do You Want to be Healed?

By Jon Walker



�When Jesus saw him lying there and learned that he had been in this condition for a long time, he asked him, �Do you want to get well?�� (John 5:6 NIV).



Long ago and far away I was diagnosed with clinical depression and began the hard work of deep, lasting, Jesus-led recovery.



One day Jesus asked me, �Do you want to be healed?�



I was reading in the Apostle John�s book and he was telling about the time that Jesus stopped by the Sheep Gate in ancient Jerusalem. There was a pool there where people waited for a chance to be healed by one of God�s angels, but, as I read, it seemed like Jesus looked over and into my eyes.



�Do you want to be healed?�



It seemed like such a ridiculous question. Of course, I wanted to be healed! But, then, I knew what he meant. Was I willing to make a healing choice?



Was I willing to do the hard work of facing painful situations, uncovering bitterness, and admitting to deep, resentful anger? Was I willing to give up my stubborn excuses that allowed me to stay the same, somehow seeing my sickness as more secure than my health?



Was I willing to give up control, let God be God, and admit that I can�t, but he can; or would I rather insist that I can, even though I can�t, holding myself in a cycle of helplessness and hopelessness?



By the pool at the Sheep Gate, Jesus asked an invalid of thirty-eight years: �Do you want to be healed?� His question swept through the man, swept through 2,000 years, and swept into the shadows of my soul.



�Sir,� the invalid replied, �I have no one to help me . . . � (John 5:7 NIV).



But there stood the Great Healer holding out help, acutely aware that we can�t, but God can, knowing this to be true because he was on a mission that would provide the only way we can be re-created whole and healthy. Jesus was on the road to Calvary.



The question lingers for you: Do you really want to be healed?



Jon Walker is the editor of �The Purpose Driven Life On-line Devotionals� and author of the devotional book, �Growing with Purpose.� Used by permission. Copyright 2009 by Jon Walker.

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