This morning I was reading in John 5 about the man that was paralyzed lying next to the pool in Jerusalem that was called in Hebrew Bethesda.\u00a0 In the appointed season an angel of the Lord went down and stirred up the water; whoever was the first person to get down into the water would be healed.\u00a0 The man that John 5 refers to had been suffering with this lingering disorder for thirty eight years.\u00a0 Jesus approached this man and realizing how long he had suffered asked him, “Do you want to become well?”\u00a0 By this queswtion, Jesus meant, “are you really in earnest about getting well”.\u00a0 The man’s response is quite interesting.\u00a0 He says, “Sir, I have nobody when the water is moving to put me into the pool; but while I am tyring to come into it somebody else steps down ahead of me.”\u00a0 Jeus immediately tells him to pick up his mat and walk.\u00a0 Immediately his life was changed!\u00a0 What catches my attention the most about this story is the question that Jesus asked the man-Do you want to become well.\u00a0 At first glance that seems like a crazy question.\u00a0 Of course the fellow would have wanted to be well-right?\u00a0 I remember a sermon that our pastor at our church preached a long time ago on a Sunday night regarding this particular passage.\u00a0 He dealt with the paralytic’s attitude about getting well.\u00a0 There are some who have suffered for so long that they have lost hope of ever being well.\u00a0 For some, due to the dysfunction (False Beliefs-as we call them) in their minds they depend on the resources of others to care for them and live in a constant state of a self pity party.\u00a0 Now, don’t get me wrong…some literally have to depend on others to care for them.\u00a0 What I am talking about are thsoe who due to their dysfunction have misplaced dependencies and then developed unrealistic expectations of others.\u00a0 Meaning they are looking\u00a0to others to meet their emotional and spiritual needs of Contentment (happiness, satisfaction, fulfillment in life), Security (love & acceptance), and Significance (worth, value, importance, identity).<\/p>\n
It can seem crazy to think about, but some people literally don’t want to be well.\u00a0 They are drawing out life from others by the attention they receive from being sick.\u00a0 Obviously this is a sad place to be and many of us will encounter some of these folks either threw out the holiday season or just around our churches.\u00a0 Some of us may have someone like this in our family that we deal with.\u00a0 For most of us it may not be the most comforttable situation in the world to have to deal with.\u00a0 Some have asked me for suggestions about what to do, how to respond to them and what to say.\u00a0 My answer is usually always the same…don’t enable them and don’t necessarily try to reason with them.\u00a0 They cannot understand reason.\u00a0 You must allow Christ to love them through you…I don’t know any other way to put it than that.\u00a0 It is impossible for us to love others in our own strength.\u00a0 As Christ demonstrates Himself through you as you depend upon Him, He will guide you in loving them and communicating with them.\u00a0 You must leave their mental and emotional dysfunction with Him through prayer.\u00a0 If He directs you to speak the gtruth in love to them then do so…but make sure it is Christ speaking through you and if so it will be done in love.\u00a0 They have to want to be well in order to make that journey.\u00a0 It is most often a long, tough process for all of us in dealing with our emotional hangups a.k.a. FLESH.\u00a0 As I tell our clients…you and I can’t apply a microwave solution to a crock pot problem.\u00a0 You have to want that healing in order to make that journey.<\/p>\n
It is our prayer that you have a blessed\u00a0Merry Christmas\u00a0and wonderful times with friends and family!<\/p>\n
Dana<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
This morning I was reading in John 5 about the man that was paralyzed lying next to the pool in Jerusalem that was called in Hebrew Bethesda.\u00a0 In the appointed season an angel of the Lord went down and stirred up the water; whoever was the first person to get down into the water would be healed.\u00a0 The man that John 5 refers to had been suffering with this lingering disorder for thirty eight years.\u00a0 Jesus approached this man and realizing how long he had suffered asked him, “Do you want to become well?”\u00a0 By this queswtion, Jesus meant, “are you really in earnest about getting well”.\u00a0 The man’s response is quite interesting.\u00a0 He says, “Sir, I have nobody when the water is moving to put me into the pool; but while I am tyring to come into it somebody else steps down ahead of me.”\u00a0 Jeus immediately tells him<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[5,11],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/anewlifedesign.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/anewlifedesign.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/anewlifedesign.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/anewlifedesign.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/anewlifedesign.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=93"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/anewlifedesign.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/anewlifedesign.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=93"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/anewlifedesign.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=93"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/anewlifedesign.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=93"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}