Get up, pick up your pallet and walk

by Mike Ratliff

² Now there is in Jerusalem by the sheep gate a pool, which is called in ^[a]Hebrew ^[b]Bethesda, having five porticoes. ³ In these lay a multitude of those who were sick, blind, lame, and withered, [^[c]waiting for the moving of the waters; ⁴ for an angel of the Lord went down at certain seasons into the pool and stirred up the water; whoever then first, after the stirring up of the water, stepped in was made well from whatever disease with which he was afflicted.]⁵ A man was there who had been ^[d]ill for thirty-eight years. ⁶ When Jesus saw him lying there, and knew that he had already been a long time in that condition, He *said to him, “Do you wish to get well?” ⁷ The sick man answered Him, “Sir, I have no man to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up, but while I am coming, another steps down before me.” ⁸ Jesus *said to him, “Get up, pick up your pallet and walk.” ⁹ Immediately the man became well, and picked up his pallet and began to walk. (John 5:2-9 NASB1995) 

As I write this, I am still a very frustrated Christian. My stroke has caused all sorts of confusion. Since that happened I have also lost access to almost all of my Bible applications. I can no longer connect to CRN to post my articles. My laptop still works, but to this post stroke mind it is a confused mess. I cannot upload photos from my cameras to Lightroom. Lightroom is there, but no one is home. So, these two things are like our enemy is standing in between me and what I need to get done holding briars and thorns and spears and simply will not allow me to find that path I had just a few short weeks ago that I had in place that allowed me to process my photos and post them, write these posts and post them. So, what have I been doing? I have been going to therapy. I have remained faithful in my daily devotionals which includes daily Bible reading. Today my New Testament reading included that passage I placed at the top of this post. The version I read from this morning was from my Lagacy Standard Edition, which I prefer, but that is one of those online Bible packages I have lost contact to. Now do you see the frustration? The other Bible system I lost was Olive Tree which is where my Greek New Testaments are.

In any case, v8 in the passage above from the LSB reads, “‘Jesus said to him, “Get up, pick up your mat and walk.” When I read that this morning, I saw my whole predicament as a faith step. I am being told to not give in to the frustrations and confusions caused by the stroke, but am to “get up, obey the Lord, walk by faith, not by sight, fully trusting Him to make all this work. I shared this with my therapists today and they loved it. A huge part of thier job is to be encouraging regardless.

Yes, prayer is a huge part of this and I know I am not being healed simply by forcing the issue, No, I am being healed because I have this faith that my Lord gave me and I believe Him. I also know there are many of you praying for me to be healed.My therapists all agree that I am making great progress. Please keep praying.

Soli Deo Gloria!