Just because you want something to change doesn’t always mean you’re willing to do your part to help it happen.

[NOTE: Part 1 of this article can be found here.]

“One man was there who had been an invalid for 38 years.  When Jesus saw him lying there and knew he had already been there a long time, He said to him, ‘Do you want to be healed?'” -John 5:5-6

“Do you want to be healed?”  In some ways it seems like a silly question.  Why wouldn’t someone want healing?

Not everyone is willing to receive the healing of Christ because they don’t want to admit they can’t manage on their own.  Life may be full of difficulty, but we think we can handle it.  There may be hardship, but at least we can keep it hidden.  Sometimes we may feel that we want to be healed, but our will refuses to let Jesus heal completely because we’re unwilling to admit completely how bad the problem really is.  We’re unwilling to admit how incapable we are of fixing it on our own.

To want to be healed is often just as much about pride as it is about need.   It requires a willingness to let go of our foolish and sinful self-sufficiency, and an admission that “[We] say, ‘I am rich, I have prospered, and I need nothing, not realizing that [we] are wretched, pitiable, poor, blind, and naked.'” (Rev. 3:14)

Maybe for you it’s a sickness of body or a sickness of soul.  Maybe it’s pain in your finances or your family.  Maybe it’s your marriage.  Here’s the hard part.  The true test of humility and readiness to be healed is not admitting to God that you need help.

It’s admitting it to other people.

If you want things to change, it’s not enough to wish things were better.  You must ask yourself, do you want to be healed enough that you’re willing to let go of your pride, admit your need to another person, and let someone else be the hands and feet of Christ to you?