Do you prefer praise from others, or do you make an effort to obtain praise from God?  This is a question Jesus asks the Jews in his day, and one he still asks today.  How would you answer it?

 

 

Have you ever felt alone?  You are struggling with an issue and it seems there is no one who wants to help you?  Probably we have all felt like that at times, but there are many around us who are desperate right now. They are like the needy people who were lying beside the Pool of Bethesda in the time of Jesus.

 

This pool is in Jerusalem near the temple.  At times an angel stirred the water, and it was believed that the first person into the water, would be healed.  When there is a promise of healing, people gather.  So the blind, lame and paralyzed came to this place, and among them is a paralyzed man.  For 38 years he has come to this place.

 

We believe God answers prayer.  However we often limit God, expecting him to answer in the way we want. Yet he seldom does!  There are some wonderful truths we can learn from this story in John 4.

 

After Jesus had met the woman in Samaria, he returns to Cana in Galilee.  About 35 kilometers away, in Capernaum, a man whose son is gravely ill, hears Jesus is there.  He is desperate for help, so travels to Cana to plead with Jesus to come with him to heal his son.  This man is a royal official, and no doubt was used to people doing what he asked.  However Jesus doesn’t go with him.  Instead Jesus says, “You may go.  Your son will live.”