John 5:1-15 Everyone into the Pool!

John 5 NLT
Jesus Heals a Lame Man 
1 Afterward Jesus returned to Jerusalem for one of the Jewish holy days. 2 Inside the city, near the Sheep Gate, was the pool of Bethesda,with five covered porches. 3 Crowds of sick people—blind, lame, or paralyzed—lay on the porches. 5 One of the men lying there had been sick for thirty-eight years. 6 When Jesus saw him and knew he had been ill for a long time, He asked him, “Would you like to get well?” 7 “I can’t, sir,” the sick man said, “for I have no one to put me into the pool when the water bubbles up. Someone else always gets there ahead of me.” 8 Jesus told him, “Stand up, pick up your mat, and walk!” 9 Instantly, the man was healed! He rolled up his sleeping mat and began walking! But this miracle happened on the Sabbath, 10 so the Jewish leaders objected. They said to the man who was cured, “You can’t work on the Sabbath! The law doesn’t allow you to carry that sleeping mat!” 11 But he replied, “The man who healed me told me, ‘Pick up your mat and walk.’” 12 “Who said such a thing as that?” they demanded. 13 The man didn’t know, for Jesus had disappeared into the crowd. 14 But afterward Jesus found him in the Temple and told him, “Now you are well; so stop sinning, or something even worse may happen to you.” 15 Then the man went and told the Jewish leaders that it was Jesus who had healed him. "

This pool of Bethesda was known for its healing waters. An angel would stir the water and whoever was the first one in to the pool was healed of whatever afflicted them. The man beside the pool was one of many people waiting to be healed. He had been afflicted 38 years, most of his life. Jesus speaks and he is healed. Instead of rejoicing with him, the Pharisees focus on a law being broken, the man was carrying his mat on the Sabbath. 

Do we overlook blessings and instead turn to the law? Do we rejoice with those who are blessed or do we think "Why not me?" Ultimately, God is in control. He is the One who gets to decide who is healed and who is not. He decides what blessing each of us receive. He has His reason and purpose for everything He does. I have had many sorrows and disappointments in my life but as I look back, I see God's purpose in them. God had other plans for me, bigger plans then I could have ever imagined. Every sorrow, every disappointment led me to where God wanted me to be so He could use me. 

Where is God leading you? Make your heart willing to receive whatever He has planned and purposed for you today. God has been working in your life to direct you where He wants you to be so He can use you. God has bigger plans for you then anything you could ever have imagined. 

Blessings, Cecilia