Today’s devotion is based on Sunday’s message: Signs – Beyond Superstition (CLICK HERE TO LISTEN)
Do any of these apply to you?
- Once I’ve determined a way to do something, I am extremely resistant to trying a new way.
- “There’s no other way” is often a fixation in my mind which leads to a problem never being solved.
- Things we wish would happen, we see no way that they ever will happen.
I can carry these thoughts myself. Perhaps not always and in ever situation, but it is not difficult to get fixated on one way of doing things which leads to our determining if something is possible or not based on what we determine the probability is.
Ok that sounds a bit philosophical. So let’s put a biblical example to it.
Jesus was in Jerusalem near the pool of Bethsaida. The thinking was that periodically “angels” stirred the waters and whoever was the first to get into the water would be healed. So around the pool were those with infirmities and illnesses that the medical knowledge of the day could not fix.
So the people lying there were fixated on one thing: Get in the water as soon as it moved.
Unless you couldn’t.
And this was true for an invalid of 38 years…38 years. How long had he been lying at the pool just trying, hoping he could somehow be the first one in. It’s not too much of a stretch to think that it was a life-long dream to get in first, but a dream that had very little hope of ever being realized.
He had a one-track mind.
John 5:6 When Jesus saw him lying there and learned that he had been in this condition for a long time, he asked him, “Do you want to get well?”
7 “Sir,” the invalid 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.”
Did the man want to get well? Of course he did. However, he had a one track mind and the pathway to healing was blocked by his inability to get into the pool. He wanted to get well, but his response indicated it would probably never happen. He didn’t even ask Jesus if he would help him to the pool (maybe it is implied, but not directly asked).RememberR
Can we get like this?
I will never get well because there is no medicine to help me.
I will never get a job because I am not good at anything.
I will never…
You fill in the blank. When we operate on our human limitations, we run up against our human limitations.
But when we run up against our limitations, we miss out on God’s solutions.
8 Then Jesus said to him, “Get up! Pick up your mat and walk.” 9 At once the man was cured; he picked up his mat and walked.
Remember, God is not limited by human limitations.
Apply: What seems impossible to you to accomplish, navigate or solve today in your life? Is it possible that God might have a solution you haven’t even thought of? Pray for your problem to be solved by His solution!
Prayer: Lord, forgive me for having a one track mind that is limited by my abilities and my perspective. Give me a heart of faith to believe and live knowing that you are not limited by human limitations. AMEN.