Do You Want To?

When Jesus saw him lying there, and knew that he already had been in that condition a long time, He said to him, “Do you want to be made well?”  John 5:6

"What do you want to do?" is a question one begins hearing fairly early in life by way of instruction or a desire to find out what it is you want, and many other circumstances. The Bible shows God dealing with the whole range of human 'want to's' throughout the scriptures. The one I selected for our scripture this morning shows a time when we have at one time said that this answer should be obvious to our Lord. And yet, we have come to know that Jesus had an understanding of our want to's far above what we think we know. The man may have enjoyed the attention and sympathy he received for his condition. I can tell you that it is a powerful good feeling to be on the receiving end of this sort of thing. Our Lord's question was not an idle one either in that upon healing by our Lord, this man would need to find employment...after 38 years of infirmity. 

What were you doing 38 years ago and could you jump right into it today if you had to? I'm sure of the Lord leading me to this today because 38 years ago today I was in the first days of Marine boot camp out in San Diego. The Lord would need to give me quite the healing to go right back to that at my age and condition! And by the way, I don't wanna do that again! The world looks at the newly healed man and says, "Congrats, what are you going to do for work?" Consider our Lord's question carefully man by the pool at Bethesda for 38 years; to re-enter the working world after 38 years idle will not be easy. Since the man did want to, do we have any doubt the Lord also saw to his keeping and working? 

We too are kept in the Lord Jesus,

Bucky