John 5:1-9

"Jesus went up to Jerusalem near the Sheep Gate, a pool surrounded by 5 covered colonnades. Here a great number of disabled people used to lie - the blind, the lame, the paralyzed. One who was there had been an invalid for 38 years. When Jesus saw him lying there and learned that he had been in this condition for a long time, he asked him, 'Do you want to get well?'
'Sir,' the invalid replied, 'I have no one to help me into the pool when the water is stirred. While I am trying to get in, someone else goes down ahead of me.'
Then Jesus said to him, 'Get up! Pick up your mat, and walk.' At once the man was cured; he picked up his mat and walked."


38 YEARS!!!!

This man's problems had become a way of life!
No one helped him to the healing pool.
He had no hope of ever being healed and no desire to help himself.
The man's situation looked hopeless.

But no matter how trapped you feel in your infirmities. God can minister to your deepest needs.
Don't let a problem or hardship cause you to lose hope. God may have special work for you to do in spite of your condition, or ever because of it. Many have effectively ministered to hurting people because they have triumphed over their own hurts.


(This was from my Life Application Bible commentary, not my own thoughts!)