Do you want to get well?

A memory came to mind from some years ago. I was in line at the grocery store and a little girl asked her mother, if it’s worse to pick a scab on her knee or the mosquito bite on her arm. Her mother replied, it’s not good to pick either one.” Then I heard, “why did you pick that scab, now it’s bleeding.”

This made me think, little girls aren’t the only ones who pick scabs. We big girls do it too. Okay, maybe we don’t pick at the brown crusty scabs that form over flesh wounds, but we do pick at bitter rusty scabs that form over soul wounds. Either way, picking at scabs keeps wounds from healing, and keep us stuck from moving forward.

One day Jesus went up to Jerusalem for a feast. While He was there, He stopped by what was called The Sheep Gate Pool or Pool of Bethesda. The pool was surrounded by five covered colonnades or verandas where a great number of physically compromised people used to gather—the blind, the lame, the paralyzed (John 5:1-3). They believed that from time to time an angel would come down from heaven and stir the waters. The first one in the water after such a stirring would be healed. So, there they sat, day-after-day, waiting for the mysterious rippling.

A man who had been lame for thirty-eight years caught Jesus’ eye. When Jesus saw him lying there and knew that he had already been there a long time, he said to him, “Do you want to be healed?” (John 5:6)

That is a strange question; or it is?

Sometimes we can grow comfortable being stuck in a bad story.  Ouch…..this was me!

Sure, there are heartaches and heartbreaks, disappointment and disillusionment, fear and fragile emotions, but at least we know what to expect out of life. Wounds can become like old friends that we wear as a badge of honor in some strange way. Sometimes it’s easier to cling to a bad story than embrace the redemption of a new one because the old one fits like a well-worn shoe. I’ve worn that old shoe myself. I wonder if you have too?

For the lame man by the pool, healing would mean a drastic lifestyle change. He would have to get a job and become a responsible part of the community. He would have to stand on his own two feet literally and figuratively. Begging is all he’d ever known.

Being stuck in a bad story the enemy will always have you replay the following thoughts: Do I want to get well? Hmmm. I’m not sure. At least I know what to expect in this condition.

The steps to healing from past trauma, is to recognize being comfortable in a bad story is a lie from the enemy. Accept that no matter how we received it, it’s up to us decide that we want to get well, admit the truth about it so that you can move past it, trust God’s plan for the purpose of the pain for His glory—in order to obtain a better story.

Even though the man never did answer Jesus’ question, Jesus stepped over his excuses and said, “Get up, take up your bed, and walk.” (John 5:8)). And he did.

Jesus had a knack for telling people to do what they didn’t think they could.

“Stretch out your hand.” He stretched it out, and his hand was restored. (Mark 3:1-5).

Open your blind eyes and tell me what you see( Isaiah 35:5).

Then a demon-possessed man who was blind and mute was brought to Jesus, and He healed him, so that the mute man spoke and saw (Matthew 12:22).

We all have some kind of condition. Maybe it’s not as visible as the lame man by the pool, but we have something in our stories we’d like to change. And Jesus asks the question…do you really want to live differently than you are right now?

It’s paralyzing to live in the past. What emotional scab is God calling you to stop picking at today? Jesus provides the way to move forward—to pick up our emotional beds and walk.

It’s vitally important to learn how to activate and release God’s healing power over your life. It’s the pattern of obedience to the voice of the Holy Spirit, discipline in reading God’s Word, consistency in applying God’s Word, trusting God’s Word without question and faith in what Jesus Christ has already done for us. When we lack any of these it causes us to miss our healing.

Prayer: Heavenly Father, I really want to stop picking at this emotional scab of hurt and shame. I want to be healed of anything that has been holding me back from moving forward. Show me if I have any past hurt or shame that I’ve been picking at and give me the power to open my hands and let it go. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.


PEARLStoPONDER: The biblical definition of God’s healing is when one, through the grace and power of the Holy Spirit receives restoration to any decayed or dead area of their life, whether physical, mental, spiritual, or in the soul.

Psalm 147:3-- He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds.

2 Corinthians 12:9-- But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore, I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me.

James 5:14-15-- Is anyone among you sick? Let him call for the elders of the church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord. ¹⁵ And the prayer of faith will save the one who is sick, and the Lord will raise him up. And if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven.

1Peter 5:10-- And after you have suffered a little while, the God of all grace, who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ, will himself restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish you.