pick up your mat and walk

Opening Prayer: Lord Jesus, I want to get well and I don’t want to get well—both at the same time.  What a mess I am!  Please give me the courage to leave behind my old story, in order to step into the new story you have for me.  Amen.

Scripture: John 5:8-9

Journal: What story is God asking you to leave behind?  Will you?  What story is he inviting you to step into?  Will you?

Reflection: In life with Jesus, there is always a story we must leave behind and a story we are invited to step into.  The problem is that we can’t have one without the other.  In order to accept the invitation to a new way of being and seeing, we must first be willing to leave behind the old.  That’s why Jesus tells the man by the pool that he must, “Get up! Pick up your mat and walk.”

How is Jesus telling you that today?  What does "Get up! Pick up your mat and walk," look like?

Prayer

Closing Prayer: Lord Jesus, forgive me when I am resistant to what you want to do in and through me.  Give me the strength and the courage and the grace to “Get up!  Pick up my mat and walk.”  Whatever that may look like.