10/16/2026
Excuses. When Jesus asks if we want to be restored, we often answer with an excuse for why it has not happened yet. We explain the circumstances. We describe the obstacles. We justify why we are still in the same place. But Jesus instructs us in Matthew 5:37 that our yes should be yes and our no should be no. Anything beyond that opens a door the enemy is happy to walk through. Excuses reveal what lives in the unexamined corners of our hearts. They protect us from having to say yes to something that might require us to change, to move, to trust.
Distraction. The man by the pool had spent years watching others get into the water before him. He was so consumed by what was happening for everyone else that he could not see what was standing directly in front of him. This is a familiar trap. When God is blessing someone near us, it is easy to look at their yard and wonder why ours looks different. But God is not a respecter of persons. Romans 2:11 reminds us that there is no partiality with God. What he does for one, he will do for another. The question is whether we are paying attention to our own invitation or spending our energy focused on someone else's.
Rehearsing the old story. Perhaps the most subtle hindrance of all is the story we tell ourselves in private. For 38 years, every time someone stepped into that pool and came out healed, the man had an opportunity to speak defeat over himself. To say, not fast enough, not good enough, never going to happen. The negative self-talk on repeat. The same story, the same conclusion, day after day. But Jesus was standing there offering a new page, a new chapter, a new story entirely. The invitation was not to return to what once was. The Greek word for well in this passage carries the meaning of sound, whole, renewed. When Jesus restores, he does not simply repair the old thing. He makes something new. As Revelation 21:5 declares, he who sits on the throne says he is making all things new.
