"Arise my darling" by Daniel Chuter

Arise my darling... why do you sit here?
In John 5 we see an interesting situation that deserves consideration. We see ‘impotent folk’ in verse 3, blind and lame. Sometimes if we are honest about our lives we could relate to this, spiritually speaking.  We feel helpless and in fact disabled and unable to help ourselves.  It is interesting that Jesus said that we must be poor in spirit in order to truly come to him.  This means to be utterly destitute of strength unable to be good enough in ourselves.  To be a beggar, without food or money.  To be broken and impotent, in terms of our need for salvation.

  We are living in times where it is important to be honest with God about our needs and desires.  He understands and knows our nature but we are expert at covering up and pretending.  We love the flattery and pride of appearing ‘holy’ but are really just religious and empty.  We must admit our poverty and inability to find lasting hope in life.  We just exist and get by going through routines and motions that really just make us feel better.

So the challenge is to truly except the invitation that Jesus made and to know that it truly is Him and Him alone that can help us.  So the man in this story had been in this situation for a long time.  I think if we were honest this is probably something we could all relate to.  We have been to lots of meetings and heard lots about what God might be like but do we really cry out to Him, who alone can heal.
In this story it was believed that if a certain event occurred, verse 4, a man could be healed.  But the man was always stopped and delayed.  Do we often find that what we really want doesn’t really happen?  So the real question is... what do we really believe... what have we been told?  What are our convictions based upon?  What do we dwell on and put our trust in?

In the Garden of Eden the first lie was about whether God had really established a truth.  We are led to doubt and question and be afraid.  So do we believe the whole truth?  That Jesus died for us and was in fact raised that we may ‘walk forward’. If we follow the story we see that Jesus turned up and perceived the true problem; the truth is that we need forgiveness otherwise we carry a sense of guilt, condemnation and shame for a lifetime.  The truth is that Jesus is love and desires only to help and bless.  The truth is that we don’t have to sit in our lives just existing and getting by. Jesus said that we should continue in His word and that we would know the truth and that it would set us free.

We live in a land and a time full of different ideas and voices.  Even our churches can be full of lots of ideas and views.  But are there also not strongholds that are set up against the knowledge of God.  In that way we dwell in an enemy occupied land in the same way that Gideon did, because the people had turned from God and the Midianites had been allowed access, Judges 6.

Jesus offers us Life to the full. Surely we must dismantle much of our self righteousness for there is only one who can truly forgive?  So let us be honest... we need Him.