1 00:00:32,025 --> 00:00:36,305 Speaker 1: Hey friends, Jennifer Slattery here thanking you for a wonderful year. 2 00:00:36,625 --> 00:00:39,745 Speaker 1: Your support means the world to us. I also wanted 3 00:00:39,784 --> 00:00:41,425 Speaker 1: to let you know that my team and I will 4 00:00:41,465 --> 00:00:44,104 Speaker 1: be taking a two week break in January to regroup 5 00:00:44,144 --> 00:00:47,665 Speaker 1: and refuel spiritually. During that time, will we air some 6 00:00:47,784 --> 00:00:51,385 Speaker 1: of our most popular episodes if you've already listened to them. 7 00:00:51,545 --> 00:00:55,505 Speaker 1: Perhaps consider this an opportunity to prayerfully reflect on the 8 00:00:55,585 --> 00:00:59,785 Speaker 1: truce anew. May you encounter the Lord in a personal 9 00:01:00,025 --> 00:01:13,545 Speaker 1: and fulfilling way each time you listen God Bless Life Audio. 10 00:01:15,225 --> 00:01:18,145 Speaker 2: Hello, thank you for listening to your Daily Bible Verse, 11 00:01:18,345 --> 00:01:21,985 Speaker 2: the podcast that examines one verse each day to learn 12 00:01:22,025 --> 00:01:25,425 Speaker 2: more about God and his will for us. I'm your host, 13 00:01:25,465 --> 00:01:28,664 Speaker 2: Jennifer Slattery, and after this shirtwood from our sponsor, we'll 14 00:01:28,705 --> 00:01:44,465 Speaker 2: dive into today's Bible verse, John five seven. Today's Bible 15 00:01:44,544 --> 00:01:47,945 Speaker 2: verse is John five point seven. Sure the Invalid replied, 16 00:01:48,025 --> 00:01:49,984 Speaker 2: I have no one to help me into the pool. 17 00:01:50,025 --> 00:01:52,465 Speaker 2: When the water is stirred. While I am trying to 18 00:01:52,505 --> 00:01:56,105 Speaker 2: get in, someone else goes down ahead of me. If 19 00:01:56,145 --> 00:01:58,985 Speaker 2: you've listened to this podcast for any length of time, 20 00:01:59,065 --> 00:02:01,825 Speaker 2: you may have heard me mention my ongoing battle with 21 00:02:01,945 --> 00:02:05,825 Speaker 2: chronic pain. Praise God, it tends to remain well managed 22 00:02:05,905 --> 00:02:10,505 Speaker 2: while it intensifies on occasion. Those heightened periods are usually 23 00:02:10,505 --> 00:02:15,945 Speaker 2: relatively short lived. This past fall, however, my pain spiked 24 00:02:16,145 --> 00:02:20,065 Speaker 2: and remained elevated for months, And because it tends to 25 00:02:20,065 --> 00:02:23,025 Speaker 2: feel worse at night, it also robbed me of my sleep. 26 00:02:23,705 --> 00:02:28,305 Speaker 2: If you've ever experienced insomnia, you understand how defeating sleep 27 00:02:28,544 --> 00:02:33,305 Speaker 2: deprivation can be. Initially, I tried to pushed through. I 28 00:02:33,425 --> 00:02:37,585 Speaker 2: soon realized, however, that I needed to drastically adjust my 29 00:02:37,625 --> 00:02:41,945 Speaker 2: schedule to accommodate for a major challenge I feared might 30 00:02:42,424 --> 00:02:47,065 Speaker 2: never go away. And because my symptoms worsened when we traveled, 31 00:02:47,105 --> 00:02:51,465 Speaker 2: I decided to take time off speaking. Don't presume your 32 00:02:51,505 --> 00:02:56,464 Speaker 2: presence struggle on your future. In other words, always leave 33 00:02:56,544 --> 00:02:59,785 Speaker 2: room for miracles. I wonder how the man mentioned in 34 00:02:59,785 --> 00:03:02,985 Speaker 2: today's verse viewed his future. The fact that he lay 35 00:03:03,105 --> 00:03:08,144 Speaker 2: near Besida, a pool believed to contain healing powers, indicates 36 00:03:08,144 --> 00:03:11,345 Speaker 2: he probably held hope for healing at some point. Either 37 00:03:11,424 --> 00:03:15,185 Speaker 2: that or maybe family or friends brought him there. You see, 38 00:03:15,264 --> 00:03:18,625 Speaker 2: the people believed the water possessed healing power for the 39 00:03:18,745 --> 00:03:23,225 Speaker 2: first person to enter it once the waters had been stirred, 40 00:03:23,905 --> 00:03:26,585 Speaker 2: but this didn't apply for the second, third, fourth, or 41 00:03:26,864 --> 00:03:31,465 Speaker 2: seventy fourth person entering the water. We don't know how 42 00:03:31,505 --> 00:03:34,225 Speaker 2: long this man lay there, or how many times he'd 43 00:03:34,305 --> 00:03:39,185 Speaker 2: tried to drag himself into the pool. Scripture does tell us, however, 44 00:03:39,705 --> 00:03:44,105 Speaker 2: that he'd been an invalid for thirty eight years. And 45 00:03:44,185 --> 00:03:48,465 Speaker 2: I wonder, after nearly four decades of suffering and likely 46 00:03:48,665 --> 00:03:52,505 Speaker 2: countless nights of unanswered prayers, had he given up hope 47 00:03:52,545 --> 00:03:56,865 Speaker 2: for better? Had he assumed his current hardship would always 48 00:03:56,945 --> 00:04:00,505 Speaker 2: remain gave a guzik from the Enduring Words suggests so, 49 00:04:00,665 --> 00:04:05,064 Speaker 2: stating quote that some are so discouraged that they put 50 00:04:05,065 --> 00:04:09,425 Speaker 2: away all hope of being healed end quote. The Jameson 51 00:04:09,505 --> 00:04:14,465 Speaker 2: Fawcet Brown commentary agrees, suggesting that Jesus wanted to quote 52 00:04:14,505 --> 00:04:18,625 Speaker 2: fasten attention on himself and by so singular a question 53 00:04:18,825 --> 00:04:22,065 Speaker 2: to beget in his desponding heart the hope of a 54 00:04:22,145 --> 00:04:27,104 Speaker 2: cure end quote. Hope can feel dangerous to someone who's 55 00:04:27,265 --> 00:04:31,265 Speaker 2: repeatedly had their hopes dashed, as this man probably had. 56 00:04:32,505 --> 00:04:36,825 Speaker 2: Perhaps you know this from experience. If so, may you 57 00:04:36,985 --> 00:04:41,185 Speaker 2: gain encouragement from this biblical account In Jesus's tender heart 58 00:04:41,265 --> 00:04:46,145 Speaker 2: for this man, who'd probably spent decades weighed down with despair. 59 00:04:47,225 --> 00:04:50,105 Speaker 2: After the man explained why he couldn't reach the water, 60 00:04:50,265 --> 00:04:54,385 Speaker 2: Jesus said, get up, pick up your mat, and walk. 61 00:04:55,145 --> 00:04:57,385 Speaker 2: I wonder how those words might have hit me had 62 00:04:57,425 --> 00:05:00,305 Speaker 2: I been in that man's position. Jesus told the man 63 00:05:00,344 --> 00:05:04,505 Speaker 2: to do something that had been impossible a moment prior. 64 00:05:05,105 --> 00:05:09,385 Speaker 2: One might expect the guy to respond, but I can't. Instead, 65 00:05:09,745 --> 00:05:15,784 Speaker 2: he demonstrated immediate faith filled obedience. Verse nine states quote. 66 00:05:15,784 --> 00:05:19,105 Speaker 2: At once the man was cured, He picked up his 67 00:05:19,145 --> 00:05:27,025 Speaker 2: mat and walked. In an instant, his life changed. Whatever 68 00:05:27,185 --> 00:05:31,625 Speaker 2: negative presumptions he'd imposed on his future, shattered by the 69 00:05:31,665 --> 00:05:36,544 Speaker 2: all powerful, tender hand of God. Scripture assures us that 70 00:05:36,705 --> 00:05:40,625 Speaker 2: all of his children will one day receive total healing, 71 00:05:40,665 --> 00:05:42,705 Speaker 2: if not while on this present earth, then when we 72 00:05:42,825 --> 00:05:47,065 Speaker 2: pass into our eternal home, and it encourages us to 73 00:05:47,385 --> 00:05:51,664 Speaker 2: always maintain hope, not in our figurative bodies of water, 74 00:05:51,745 --> 00:05:55,905 Speaker 2: but instead in the God of hope, the one who loves, 75 00:05:56,025 --> 00:05:59,664 Speaker 2: exchanging beauty for ashes, bringing life to those things we 76 00:05:59,705 --> 00:06:03,585 Speaker 2: deem dead, and shattering our world's darkness with his glorious light. 77 00:06:04,825 --> 00:06:09,865 Speaker 2: We maintain that hope by reflecting upon the power, promises 78 00:06:09,904 --> 00:06:12,945 Speaker 2: and heart revealed in accounts like the one found in 79 00:06:13,025 --> 00:06:17,665 Speaker 2: John chapter five. Because our Lord doesn't change, and as 80 00:06:17,784 --> 00:06:21,945 Speaker 2: Lamentations three, verse twenty two proclaims, because of the Lord's 81 00:06:21,945 --> 00:06:25,185 Speaker 2: great love, we are not consumed for his compassions, or 82 00:06:25,305 --> 00:06:30,065 Speaker 2: some translations phrase it. Mercies never fail. They are new 83 00:06:30,665 --> 00:06:38,104 Speaker 2: every morning. Greate is is faithfulness. Let's pray, Holy Father, 84 00:06:38,224 --> 00:06:43,065 Speaker 2: you have declared again and again throughout scripture, that you 85 00:06:43,145 --> 00:06:47,025 Speaker 2: love us, that you see us, that you are a protector, 86 00:06:47,145 --> 00:06:50,265 Speaker 2: are provider, the one who defends us, the one who 87 00:06:50,265 --> 00:06:53,464 Speaker 2: goes before us, the one who has great plans for us, 88 00:06:53,945 --> 00:06:59,265 Speaker 2: and who lovingly leads us towards those plans. When we 89 00:06:59,344 --> 00:07:05,025 Speaker 2: feel afraid, when we're hurting, when we feel alone, remind 90 00:07:05,145 --> 00:07:08,145 Speaker 2: us of your promises, remind us that you're with us. 91 00:07:08,224 --> 00:07:11,865 Speaker 2: Help us to sense your presence, and when we are hurting, 92 00:07:12,425 --> 00:07:16,745 Speaker 2: ignite our souls to turn to you, maybe find strength 93 00:07:16,905 --> 00:07:22,545 Speaker 2: in you, comfort and rest in you. You still heal. 94 00:07:23,985 --> 00:07:27,305 Speaker 2: We know you have the power to do so, and 95 00:07:27,385 --> 00:07:31,705 Speaker 2: whether you choose to heal us or not, we know 96 00:07:32,065 --> 00:07:38,465 Speaker 2: that your intentions towards us are good because you are good, 97 00:07:38,665 --> 00:07:43,825 Speaker 2: and so Lord, we ask for your miraculous intervention in 98 00:07:43,905 --> 00:07:47,825 Speaker 2: our lives. Heal what needs to be healed, transform what 99 00:07:48,025 --> 00:07:53,225 Speaker 2: needs to be transformed, strengthen what needs to be strengthened. 100 00:07:53,265 --> 00:07:58,465 Speaker 2: And as we wait on you draw us closer, surround 101 00:07:58,545 --> 00:08:01,265 Speaker 2: us with your love, and fill us with your truth. 102 00:08:01,345 --> 00:08:04,345 Speaker 2: It is in the name of Jesus Christ, our Savior, 103 00:08:04,465 --> 00:08:05,705 Speaker 2: that we pray Amen.