Daily Devotional
Jesus Wants to Spiritually Heal
“Now a certain man was there who had an infirmity thirty-eight years. 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?’ The sick man answered Him, ‘Sir, I have no man to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up; but while I am coming, another steps down before me.’ Jesus said to him, ‘Rise, take up your bed and walk.’ And immediately the man was made well, took up his bed, and walked.”
John 5:5-9a
December 7, 2022
Ponder This
In this passage, Jesus asked the paralytic a profound but very simple question: “Do you want to be made well?” That’s the question Jesus asked the man, but it is also one for you. Jesus is not merely in the healing business. He only healed one person in this passage. The Bible says there was a great multitude there. Had Jesus been only a great healer He would have healed them all. This miracle had a message: that we might believe Jesus is the Christ and believe that we might have life through His name (see John 20:31). We need to go beyond miracles and on to Jesus.
G. Campbell Morgan said every parable Jesus taught was a miracle of instruction and every miracle which Jesus wrought was a teaching. 1 Now, he didn’t mean the miracles were not real, but there is a miraculous message in the miracles. Jesus healed this one man to get a message across to all of us who feel we need spiritual strength. Apart from Christ, we are spiritually paralyzed and without strength, but in Christ, we have power for living. Jesus is God’s answer to man’s spiritual disability.
- Who do you go to for help? Why do you go to that person?
- Who do you see struggling right now that you could ask Jesus to make whole?
1 G. Campbell Morgan, “Ability for Disability,” O Christian Articles, accessed October 5, 2022, http://articles.ochristian.com/article14074.shtml
Practice This
Ask God for help with something you know you can’t do on your own.
FOR YOUR GIFT TO THE MINISTRY
Front Porch Moments by Gayle Foster
WITH KEY INSIGHTS FROM HER FATHER, ADRIAN ROGERS
I try to unplug each morning with Jesus with just my rocking chair, my Bible, and a pen.
Having a secret place is very important because I know that Jesus is always there waiting for me. I know where I can find Him! His presence is everywhere, but there are places where it is so thick you can cut it with a knife. You may not even have a front porch, but there is a secret place for you as well. God’s invitations are for anyone who will respond. There is no more important request than the one found in Psalm 27:8: “My heart has heard You say, ‘Come and talk with Me.’ And my heart responds, ‘Lord, I am coming.’”
