Power of Overcoming

Key Scripture:  “Rise, take up your bed and walk! And immediately the man was made well, took up his bed and walked.”  John 5:9

Power Point:

As I’ve been thinking about “overcomers”, I was reminded of the man at the pool of Bethesda.  To be honest, at first glance, I thought he had more of a victim mentality than an overcoming spirit. This pool was a place where people who needed healing would come and lay at the edge of the water. God would send an angel at a certain time to stir up the water and those who were able to get into it first were healed. What a lovely thought! Except that the man we are talking about had been lying there for thirty-eight years! Really! I thought he was a victim of his circumstances, and in fact I've heard this story taught exactly that way.
 

What would you have done? I think I would probably have tried to make friends with the people around me during that long wait and asked them to help me.  I think that after four or five years I might have hit somebody over the head with my cane if they tried to keep me back.  I would probably have picked up my bed and gone home long before year 38. In other words, I would not have been as patient as he was, nor as faithful. In fact, he may have tried all that, yet after all this time he simply said, “I have no one to help me". I don't think it was a complaint but a simple statement of fact. The only thing Jesus says to him is, “Do you want to be well?”  He didn't ask for a reason or an excuse for his condition. He already knew. John says, “Jesus saw him lying there and knew that he had already been a long time in that condition.” In fact, the man had been lying there longer than Jesus had been on the earth. If you’ll notice he never answered Jesus’ question. He just said, “I have no one to help me”.

But Help had arrived. Compassion came to where he was.  The Father had led Jesus to his side to bring this man the healing and wholeness he had been praying for. Grace came and grace helped him. He had waited thirty eight years and help had come.  He had waited on God for all that time never moving away from the promise of that pool. And he received the reward of his faith.

We have to decide how we will live our lives don’t we? We are either victims of our circumstances or victors over them. Even when things are difficult we can still choose to overcome the temptation to live as a victim.  After all, we have this God with Whom everything is a distinct possibility, even after a very long time.  Aren’t you grateful? I know I am. Maybe your situation has taken a long time Beloved, but don't move. Help is on the way.

Power Thought:

Overcomers wait for the promise, no matter what, no matter how long. They plunge into the promise and stay there.