"When Jesus saw him lying there and learned that he had been in this condition for a long time, He asked him, 'Do you want to get well?' " John 5:6 (NIV)
The Apostle John reports the account of Jesus healing the lame man by the pool. For thirty-eight years this lame man had been suffering, lying by the pool at Bethesda hoping to get into the water first after the angel stirred the waters. Jesus saw him and asked him if he wanted to get well. Instead of answering the question that Jesus had asked him, the man began giving Jesus excuses for why he had not gotten into the pool first and therefore was not healed. Jesus healed him by telling him to get up, take up his bed and walk.
We are so much like this man. The Bible gives us many examples of what we need to do in order to be blessed, but instead of doing them we offer excuses for not doing what The Bible says. I guess "No" is the honest answer to the question, "Do we want to be blessed more than we already are?" The Word of God tell us what we should do to be blessed, all we have to do is change our behavior and follow God's Word. There are thirteen Bible verses that include the phrase "Blessed is the man ..." and fourteen more that say "Blessed is he ..." All we have to do is follow God's Word and we would be blessed even more than we already are. We need to stop giving God excuses for not doing what He says in His Word that we should do. We are blessed, but we are missing out on additional conditional blessings by not following His Word.
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