Troubled Waters

I was reading in John 5:1-9 about the man who was healed by Jesus at the Pool of Bethesda. There were a multitude of sick folk there waiting for the moving of the water. At a certain season, it was believed that when an angel went down into the pool and troubled the water, the first to step in was healed of their sickness.

 

The Pool of Bethesda had a strong attraction. When the water was troubled, the first to DO this – step into the water – they would be healed.

 

I believe that God will “trouble our waters” just to get us to the place He needs us to be. It isn't about the pool at all. Think about this: When the waters are troubled, the ships have to seek out a port, a place of safety very quickly or risk being capsized. For us, when difficult situations (troubled waters) arise, we run to God, or to someone who knows God and ask for prayer. Because we know it is GOD who is our Refuge and Strength.

 

Check out Psalm 46:1-3. I got excited when God led me to this portion of Scripture. I thought...wow! Fits perfectly.

 

“God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. Therefore, will not we fear, though the earth be removed, and though the mountains be carried into the midst of the sea; though THE WATERS THEREOF ROAR AND BE TROUBLED, though the mountains shake with the swelling thereof.”

 

In this story, it seems Jesus was there to heal this one man, yet I believe that many others left healed as well – not by the “troubling of the waters” in the pool, but by the powerful spoken words of Jesus.

 

Under the shelter of religion, there are the sick, lame and blind who can't be healed unless they do a work, walking into the pool, dipping themselves. They are helpless and hopeless, so near the pool. But Jesus has none of the Law's requirements to put upon us for our healing, only to believe in the One who is greater than angels. Just as this man and many others, we look for our healing from outside circumstances, instead of seeking the Healer. People travel here and there, to this event and that conference, seeking their healing, instead of seeking The Healer!

 

We sit on our mat, self-imprisoned by the circumstances of our life, waiting for them to change, when what needs changed is within. Jesus doesn't change our circumstance. He changes us. He calls us into a new way of being, seeing, acting, speaking and thinking. It makes our circumstances more manageable and we engage them from a different place and position. “The Pool of Bethesda” is drained of its power over us. There is freedom, where once was imprisonment.

 

Are you sitting on your mat just waiting on things to change? Are you constantly looking for “a pool of Bethesda”? Are you constantly seeking your healing? Seek Your Healer!

 

STAND UP, TAKE YOUR MAT AND WALK!

 

*I included the song, "Bridge Over Troubled Water". I still can't believe that after GOD gave me this thought, this song then played one day over the Christian radio station! GOD IS GOOD! 

 

 

BRIDGE OVER TROUBLED WATER by Simon & Garfunkel