Do You Want to Get Well?

As I sat around the camp fire with about thirty women on Friday night, a woman gave her testimony of how God healed her from anxiety. At the end she encouraged anyone else who was experiencing this struggle to come to her for prayer, but her invitation came with a warning. She encouraged the ladies that if they truly wanted to be healed, they needed to be ready to obey God. In particular, they needed to be ready to give up things that God knew were anxiety-causing behaviors.

In John 5, Jesus asked a lame man, “Would you like to be well?” That’s a funny question, don’t you think? The assumption is obviously, “Duh—of course!” But, it’s the same question Jesus asks us when we come to him with many of our spiritual ailments. For those of us who are a little more wordy, it might be phrased like this, “Are you willing to do what it takes to be made well?”

Jesus has the power to heal any affliction with just a thought or word, but very often he asks us to participate in our healing. When we are ill, he gives us the common sense to see a doctor and gives doctors wisdom to treat us. Whether we are physically, spiritually, or mentally ill, he often calls us to participate in our healing by taking specific steps of obedience. He asked the lame man to pick up his mat. He asked the blind man to go wash his eyes. He told the lepers to go the priests for cleansing. Why wouldn’t he ask us to take action as well?

Sometimes it’s easier to remain stuck in our unwellness. Sometimes we are so accustomed to the status quo that we can’t imagine any other way of living. Sometimes we allow our dysfunction to become our identity. So, Jesus asks, “Do you really want to get well?”

James 1:22-25 (NLT) says, “But don’t just listen to God’s word. You must do what it says. Otherwise, you are only fooling yourselves. For if you listen to the word and don’t obey, it is like glancing at your face in a mirror. You see yourself, walk away, and forget what you look like. But if you look carefully into the perfect law that sets you free, and if you do what it says and don’t forget what you heard, then God will bless you for doing it.”

What problem are you facing today? Have you prayed about it? Have you been obedient to God’s commands? Are you willing to be made well?