Stand Up and Stand Out

After the man by the pool in Bethesda was told to Get up! And Pick up his bed and Walk, meaning Get up, stop feeling sorry for yourself and clean up the mess that your thirty-eight years of lying here has caused.   After he got up he received his healing right away.  We see in John 5:9 the word instantly in reference to the time frame of his healing.  

Instantly is a word that I would love to hear from God about all of my prayers but not the word that he has been sharing with me.  God will show you the plans that he has for you but he won’t reveal the time frame when they are going to arrive.   This makes it very difficult for people like you and I who are used to living in a world where we receive everything instantly.

I have become so accustomed to living life in the “microwave” time frame that it makes it difficult to wait on God.  I have found myself saying, but God you can change this in a blink of an eye, but yet, here I am still suffering.   I believe that God will allow time to pass by, while we are waiting for our prayers to be answered, to strengthen the bond between you and God.  He is giving you the opportunity to put your faith in him, instead of placing your faith in your own abilities.

 When the Jews had seen what God had done with the paralyzed man they were upset and disgusted with Jesus.  They were so appalled that Jesus healed the invalid man on the Sabbath.   You will see in John 5 how the Jews went on and on about how wrong it was for Jesus to heal this man on the Sabbath.   I feel like the Jews were a bit jealous because they were not able to perform the miracles that Jesus had, so instead of feeling bad for themselves, they went after Jesus.

Finally, they had something to attack him with and now he must pay.  You see back then there were so many rules and regulations to follow that no man was able to keep all of them.  Jesus was sent to be the sacrifice for man’s sin but this had not been revealed yet, so when Jesus was performing miracles on the Sabbath he was breaking a rule and was now under persecution by the Jews.

I think we all have rules and regulations that we live by and a lot of times we don’t allow the people around us to not live under them as well.  We adopt a way of living that we think should be the moral standard for the people who are in our lives.  When someone doesn’t live up to the standards that we have set for them, watch out, because we are now the judge and jury of their failures. 

I know in my own life I have high expectations for people because I give the people around all of me.  I need to learn that just because I give you all that I have doesn’t mean that you are indebted to me or that you have to live by the rules and regulations that I have set in practice for my own life.    It’s time that I start to allow people to be exactly who they were created to be and respect and celebrate our differences.

 
What’s interesting here in this story is that not once did someone say to the once invalid man, that’s awesome!  High Five, on now being able to walk, and being given the chance to clean up your life and make it better.  No, the focus was on the fact that Jesus healed him on the Sabbath.   Jealousy can be a very bitter pill and leave people reeling in the aftermath from its destruction.

I believe we also do this in daily life.  I believe that we focus so much on what we are doing and the time that we are taking to run our lives that we forget that all around us is God’s beauty and gifts to us.  We are so driven to be selfish and self-centered that there really isn’t a moment to see if you have already received the answer to your prayers. 

If we are not connected to the people around us, ourselves or more importantly God, how can we then expect to have our prayers answered and in the time frame we are expecting.    God doesn’t want us to be so focused on achievements and fleshly desires that we lose the communication and relationship with him and the people around us.   When you focus constantly on what you are missing you become very self-centered and hard to be around.  We are in a society of this right now.  The selfishness has risen to an all-time high and no one is standing up and saying this is not the direction that God wanted us to go in. 

God wants us to connect with each other and with him.  God desires for us to not be controlled by rules and regulations or fleshly desires and focus on helping the people around you.   We as Believers should be the driving force of change in the world.  We need to show the people around us that being self-driven is not what is going to make you feel complete as a person.

We feel good about ourselves and who we are when we are helping people around us.  We don’t focus on what we don’t have because we are focusing on the needs of the people around you. 

Take some time every day to look around and see what is really happening outside of your boxed in life.   Choose to be part of the change in the world and to exemplify what it is to be a Believer in today’s world.   Don’t allow people to lump you in with the rest of the world.  Stand out! 

Jesus was a man who stood out.  He was a man that said I am not living my life by the rules and regulations that someone else has put into action for me.  I am going to live by my father’s words and glorify him in this world.  If I see someone who is in need and hurting I am going to take a moment and help him, even if it’s on the Sabbath.  My Father wouldn’t turn his back on a person who was hurting, just because it was the Sabbath, and neither shall I. 

If we adopt more of the qualities of Jesus and abandon the rules and regulations of the world we will become a light in a dark place!  We will start to stand out and bring joy not only to people around us but to our hearts as well. 

I challenge you, and myself, to honor God with standing out and connecting with the people around you.  I challenge you to focus on the needs of others more than what you don’t have and be like Jesus and stir up the world!!