When Jesus confronted a man beside the pool of Bethesda who had been paralyzed for thirty-eight years, He asked, “Do you want to get well?” (John 5:6, NIV)
At first, it must have sounded like a thoughtless question. Surely anyone who had been lying down for so long would want to get up. But Jesus knew it can be easier to lie on a cot letting people wait on you hand and foot, than to pick up all the responsibilities of life that are required when you can walk. The man answered that he did want to get well, and immediately Jesus told him to pick up his pallet, and walk. And the man did.
How do you and I show our eagerness to receive all that God has promised us? One way is through persistent prayer as we ask God for change, seek His Word about the change, then persistently pray until He brings it about. If you have asked God to change your circumstances in some way, claiming His promise for yourself or for a loved one, what are you doing to demonstrate your faith?
The apostle Peter confirms that the inheritance being laid up for the Father’s children “can never perish, spoil or fade” – it is “kept in heaven for you” (1 Pet. 1:4, NIV). Although our inheritance is safely stored in heaven, there is a condition we have to meet before we can claim it: “He who overcomes will inherit all this.”
What do you have to overcome in order to claim My Father’s House as your own? You have to overcome . . .
your pride that refuses to acknowledge you are a sinner who needs a Savior.
your religiosity that substitutes . . . rituals for repentance, traditions for truth, and orthodoxy for obedience.
your unbelief that Jesus Christ is God’s Son, the sinner’s Savior.
Overcomers place their faith in Jesus alone for salvation . . . and inherit heaven!
They didn’t just persecute Jesus; they crucified Him! How is it that you and I think we will be treated any better?
You may be thinking this doesn’t happen today. Yet it has been estimated by the World Christian Encyclopedia that more than 45 million men and women were put to death for their faith in Jesus Christ during the twentieth century! In recent years the estimate has averaged between 160,000 and 171,000 per year. Imagine! That’s more than 10,000 Christians dying for their faith every month! More than 400 per day!
While you and I are getting up in the morning, trying to decide what to wear and what to eat and where we will spend our vacation, somewhere in the world someone is paying the ultimate price for his or her relationship with Jesus! And I ask myself, would I be willing to do the same?
