Out Of Options

“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.”

John 5:7 

 

Ever feel as though, no matter how hard you worked, you just didn't seem to be getting any better?  Have you ever felt guilty, especially after you asked God to forgive you?  You look at your options and find that you don't have any?

 

In today's story, from John 5, there is a man who has been invalid for years.  At the Pool of Bethseda, when the water bubbled up, the FIRST person into the water would be healed, and this man had been waiting and trying to get in on his own, but couldn't.  Jesus asked him if he wanted to be healed and the man replied that he has no one to put him in the pool.  He was out of options and seems to have resigned himself to his state.

 

Now Jesus could have simply told the man, "Hate it for you. Have a good day." and walked away.  But is that how Jesus worked?  Instead, Jesus offered the man another option when he told the man to get up, take up his mat and go home.  This man took the new option Jesus offered him.  How about us?  Over and over, Jesus tells us that our sins are forgiven, yet do we really take Him up on His offer?  Imagine if we actually took His offered option and stopped letting guilt run our lives.  Imagine if we actually took His offered option and quit worrying about things we have done for which we have been forgiven.

 

What's stopping us from taking His offered option?