INSPIRE Devotionals
With Emmanuel Afiawari
Tuesday, December 10, 2024
Topic: RISE, REGARDLESS!
Bible Text: John 5:7-8 NKJV
7. The sick man answered Him, “Sir, I have no man to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up; but while I am coming, another steps down before me.” Jesus said to him, “Rise, take up your bed and walk.”
INSPIRATION: Pastor Paul Adefarafin is attributed to have said, "Excuses are tools of the incompetent, monuments of nothingness, and they that use them are not wise." Most times, we look for excuses to justify why we're whom we are and why things are the way they are with us. As true or objective as these reasons may seem, they do not justify anything we attribute to them.
The impotent man in John 5 explains why he's remained impotent for 38yrs, maybe to attract pity. But Jesus, in all his compassions offered him no pity. He told him, “Rise, take up your bed and walk.” You too can't stay down. You need to rise up from all your failed efforts or disappointing outcomes; rise from the hard strokes of betrayal and loses, rise from the pain and guilt of wasted years, fruitless wait and disingenuous deceit that has crippled you.
You need to rise from the guilt and self-pity and self-condemnation of the bad choices you've made. The year might have offered you no respite, the bible says nonetheless, "For a righteous man may fall seven times and rise again..." (Prov. 24:16). It your turn to rise, paying no attention to excuses; rise to a new level of thinking, of seeing things and of acting. Isaiah instructs us to, "Arise, shine; for your light has come! And the glory of the Lord is risen upon you" (Isaiah 60:1).
You can't remain seated when God's glory has risen upon you. Never! The author of Hebrews shows us the side effect of excuses: "For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the first principles of the oracles of God; and you have come to need milk and not solid food" (Hebr. 5:12). May retrogression never become our portion when we ought to be progressively advancing in leaps and bounds, in Jesus name.
TODAY'S TAKE HOME:
Excuses will limit your possibilities, shrink your abilities and disqualify you from what is already yours. Rise and pick up your bed of limitations now!
PRAYER: O Lord, I hear and heed Your voice of command to rise up, take up my bed and walk! I refuse to stay down or offer excuses why where affirmative action is required of me. I receive grace and strength to my feebleness to actively engage so as to advance, in Jesus name.
