Devotion
Get up. Pick up your mat.
“Get up," Jesus told him, "pick up your mat and walk." Instantly the man got well, picked up his mat, and started to walk. - John 5:8-9 (CSB)”
Three commands, and every one of them asks the man to do something he has not done in thirty-eight years.
Get up is a call to faith. Jesus tells him to do the one thing he has never been able to do, and the power comes in the obeying. Pick up your mat is a call to leave the old identity behind. That mat had carried him for decades. Now he carries it, and the thing that used to define him becomes evidence of what God has done. Walk is a call into a new life, the same call Paul describes when he says anyone in Christ is a new creation (2 Corinthians 5:17).
Practice
There is usually one thing God has already told you to do about your wound, and you have been waiting to feel ready. Getting up rarely feels ready. Name that one step today and take it before the day ends. Make the call. Book the counselor. Say the sentence. Delete the app. Then look at your mat and ask what God might do with your story once you are carrying it instead of lying on it.
Prayer
Jesus, You are asking me to move before I feel able. I am getting up. Give me strength in the standing, not before it. Take the thing that has carried me and make it something I carry as proof of Your mercy. Amen.
This Week’s Message
This devotion follows along with this week’s message.