“Get up! Pick up your mat and walk.” John 5:8 NIV
“Dependencies keep you what you’ve been, preventing what you could become.”
My thoughts today are about “past dependencies.”
Everybody is leaning on something – maybe past experience, charm and personality, excuses and explanations, wealth, education, social circles, reputation, others’ charity, government assistance, even religion. None of those, nor all of them together, can give you the life you really want to have. There are seasons when anyone may have to lean upon something to get through a crisis; the problem is when dependencies become a lifestyle. Dependencies keep you what you’ve been, preventing what you could become.
Paul addresses this strange dichotomy this way, “Carry each other’s burdens . . each one should carry his own load.” Galatians 6:2/5 NIV. Both are true, but not at the same time. The reality is there are times you depend upon another’s consideration and kindness, and other times that someone is depending on yours. It is only a problem when either of those becomes exclusive of the other.
John told the story of a man who had every reason to lean on others; his weakness made him dependent on others in one way or another. John 5:5-15 NKJV. John describes him as having ”been in that condition a long time.” Whether he got to the Pool of Bethesda with help or by his own painful, struggling efforts, he got there hoping for a miracle of healing and recovery. The effect of his own efforts had been unsuccessful; the help of others had not been as helpful as he hoped. But he was still there, and he was still trying. That is important!
Without knowing that Jesus, the greatest worker of miracles, would be there that day, his hope and efforts put him in exactly the place for his life-changing moment. The mat upon which he laid could represent any number of past dependencies upon which people learn to rely, all ultimately ineffective and unhelpful. Your entire history changes when you recognize Jesus invites and empowers you to step free of every past dependency. The past gives way to your future.
The question is always the same, “Jesus . . asked him, ‘Do you want to get well?’” No one can answer that but you, and it is not your words but your actions that provide the honest answer. The first step for lasting change is a passion demonstrated by real effort to be different than you’ve been. What do you really want, improvement or life-change?
“Then Jesus said to him, ‘Get up! Pick up your mat and walk.’” You cannot make lasting change without God; God does not effect eternal change without your willing, whole-hearted involvement. When your want engages your will, God’s power is released. “At once the man was cured; he picked up his mat and walked.” An almighty God makes possible what you could not do on your own. What weaknesses of excuse, habit, or history keep you from your full potential?
Does God still do those kinds of things today – healing physically, emotionally, mentally and spiritually? Jesus would be the One to best answer that: “My Father is always at work to this very day, and I, too, am working.” John 5:17 NIV. Sounds to me like being rid of past dependencies is still possible with a God Who is “the same yesterday, today, and forever.” Hebrews 13:8/James 1:17 NKJV.
My prayer for you today is: refuse yesterday’s limits, comfortable as they may have been.