869 He's Right Here

How many failed attempts does it take before you consider Jesus? Who’s opinion or advice do you seek before seeking the Almighty? How far down the path do you walk before consulting with God on the way you should go? I’m soooooooo guilty. I’m a shoot then aim kinda gal. I jump, then consider how I might possibly land. I’m an ‘all-in’ before I consider what it means to get ‘all-out’ of what I was previously in. For this I have mercy and grace and God so generously covers me. But let me tell you, I’m beginning to understand how ridiculously hard I make things when they really don’t have to be. I could have a little chat with God BEFORE I jump, instead of when I’m already falling. I could consider his advice instead of my own impulsive tendencies. You know that old song “lookin’ for love in all the wrong places, lookin’ for love in too many faces” … that’s us. Looking in all the wrong places and missing the fact that the entire time God is right here waiting for us. Waiting for us with the guidance we need. Waiting for us with provision of all we are lacking. Waiting for us with miracles in hand and blessings in abundance. Could we stop long enough and see HE IS THE SOURCE. HE IS THE ANSWER. HE IS THE WAY. Yes, the source of exactly what you have been looking for. Yes, the answer for the very questions you have been wrestling with. And yes, the way you have been trying so darn hard to make on your own. John 5 tells us of a pool of water called the Pool of Bethesda. Legend had it that an angel would come and stir the water and the first person who jumped in that water afterwards would be healed. The crippled, the blind, and the disabled gathered at this pool searching and waiting for a sign the angel had stirred the water. A man referred to as an invalid laid by the pool. Some translations refer to him as crippled, or afflicted with illness. Commentaries offer it may have been a loss of his limbs due to stroke. His body had become a burden. It did not function. In fact, his body had not functioned for 38 years. Here he lay by the pool and nothing was changing. Then Jesus walks in. Jesus simply says “do you want to be healed?” The man replied “I have no one to help me into the pool when the water is stirred. While I am trying to get in, someone else goes down ahead of me.” Obviously this man believed the legend of the power of this pool, but the truth is, it wasn’t working for him. There was a greater source of power available right in front of him. We too get lost in seeking things that we believe may work for us. We seek the fad diet. We try what someone else said to do. We read horoscopes. We put our trust in the flip of a card, or the power of a crystal. We watch the moon or the alignment of the stars. We wait for someone else to tell us what is right or to speak God’s word into our lives. We read self-help books until we are drowning in information overload and still doing nothing different. All the while, the true source of power is available to us. Greater than any star is the one who MADE the stars. Why would I worship anything he made over the one who actually made it? Why would I listen to the advice of his creation over the maker himself? The crippled man was now in the presence of power greater than any superstition of water. Jesus was right in front of him, asking if he wanted to be made well. If you’re following along with the show called “The Chosen”, in season 2 we see this story play out. There’s a monumental moment where Jesus looks at this man laying, waiting, hoping and wishing, yet withering away as nothing changed and said “Stop trying everything else, I’m right here.” Girl, that’s for you today. Stop trying everything else, Jesus is right here.