"God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference.”
We have all sorts of reasons why we think we can’t change. We’ve told ourselves that we’ve always been that way. We’ve tried and failed too often. There’s no hope. No one will help us. We have come to believe that we can’t get well and have a good life.
Jesus met a man who had been ill for 38 years. He’d tried many times to get well but there was always some reason why it didn’t happen. Over the years he began to believe he couldn’t do what was necessary and that no one would help him. His identity as a powerless victim was rooted firmly in his heart. He believed that his situation was hopeless. Jesus knew all this but also knew many things the man didn’t know. Jesus asked the man the one important question, “Would you like to get well?”
One of the men lying there had been sick for thirty-eight years. When Jesus saw him and knew he had been ill for a long time, he asked him, “Would you like to get well?” “I can’t, sir,” the sick man said, “for I have no one to put me into the pool when the water bubbles up. Someone else always gets there ahead of me.” Jesus told him, “Stand up, pick up your mat, and walk!” Instantly, the man was healed! He rolled up his sleeping mat and began walking! (John 5:5-9 NLT)
We can get stuck for so long in our problems that we believe our problems are us. We become familiar with our limitations and what we need to get by for one more day. We transfer the anger and frustration from our own failures to others and we learn how to play the “blame game.” We get so focused on problems and blame that we no longer take time to think about hope and solutions.
The courage to change that Jesus offers us today is the willingness to let go of those things that have kept us hopeless for so long, and be healed. Jesus asks us to do two things – trust Him and obey what He tells us to do. Are we willing to live in the courage to change that Jesus is making available to us today?
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Audio for March 5, 2016 Courage To Choose Change
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