Choose Life (Part Forty-Six): Drink From the Waters (Part One)

Lay Down Your Heavy Burden

Now a certain man was there who had an infirmity thirty-eight years. When Jesus saw him lying there, and knew that he already had been in that condition a long time, He said to him, “Do you want to be made well?  

― John 5:5-6, NKJV

We continue this week with the story of the sick man healed at the Pool of Bethesda. [John 5:1-15].

Held by Complacency:

Let us look at a few examples in scripture of why people get stuck. We start with Jacob and Esau. Isaac’s words to Esau reads,

“You will live by your sword, and you will serve your brother. But when you decide to break free, you will shake his yoke from your neck.” (Genesis 27:40, NLT)

Can you spot the “but” in Isaac's statement? Jacob’s rule over Esau was limited to his allowing it. It had NOTHING to do with Jacob having the blessing. For as long as Esau was okay with Jacob’s rule, nothing changed. When Esau gets tired and sees a "THERE" big and better than his "HERE," he can break the yoke off of his neck and lift the burden off his shoulders. [Isaiah 10:27; Psalm 81:5-7] 

Wow! And guess what? No one is going to do that for him. For as long as he is okay with it, he will be yoked and burdened. The key to his liberation was always in his hands. James Allen puts it this way, 

“A strong man cannot help a weaker unless the weaker is willing to be helped, and even then the weak man must become strong of himself; he must, by his own efforts, develop the strength which he admires in another. None but himself can alter his condition.”

Drinking is Your Responsibility:

You do realize all one can do is force the horse to the river. Right? Whether or not the horse drinks is entirely up to the horse. One can, hopefully, create a thirst in the horse, but whether or not the horse drinks is up to the horse to decide. All God can do for us is to give His only begotten Son Jesus Christ to die in our place. [2 Corinthians 5:14-15] He has gotten us to the river. Whether we drink or not is in our own hands. Whether we get born again or not is entirely up to us. [John 3:3; Acts 2:38-39] God is not going to do that for us.

I love the way Stephen Luke puts it. He says, "You are the CEO of your own life. Start making executive decisions Today!" And, William Ernest Henley, in his beautiful, popular poem, Invictus, puts it like this, "I am the master of my fate, I am the captain of my soul." I can see the religious freaks already losing their temper. Really?

The kingdom is not a free for all as some will deceive you to think. There are laws. There are principles. We have a constitution. We have a Way. [John 14:6, 17:17; Acts 9:1-2; Romans 12:2] We are the people of the Way. We are the people who belong to the Way, Jesus Christ the Son of God. 

Do you know Him?

© 2017 Akin Akinbodunse

Link to Study Series:

Choose Life (Part Forty-Five)

Choose Life (Part Forty-Seven): Drink From the Waters (Part Two)

Link to Other Resources:

Unchanged Word of God (David Jeremiah)

Don't Tell Me There Ain't No God (Gary McDougall)

Stay Salt: The World Has Changed (Rebecca Manley Pippert)

God Has Not Changed His Mind About You (Andrea Lynn Gates)