IMAGINE THE POSSIBILITIES

Like a seasoned race horse, most of us burst through the "New Year's Starting Gate" galloping for the finish line full of anticipation and energy.  We wear our colorful list of resolutions proudly as we jockey for position eager to make 2012 our most successful year ever.  With the heart of a thoroughbred we thunder through the year determined to realize our dreams.

Then it happens.  The smooth track gets long and hard.  The turf becomes littered with economic set backs, family problems, illness, and any number of stumbling blocks.  It's usually in the middle of the race we start to get bogged down and sucked into the miry clay of everyday life.  So what should we do when we nose dive into sudden disaster?

When Jesus encountered a crippled man at the pool of Bethesda who was waiting for a miracle, He asked the man how long he had been in that condition.  The cripple replied, "Thirty-eight years."  Jesus didn't stand with the spectators having a pity party because of the man's terrible quality of life.  He gave the guy one set of simple instructions.  "Get up."

Discouragement is an enemy that will keep us lying by the Pool of Bethesda, so to speak, just like the crippled man, waiting year after year for something good to happen.  To get up is a decision we need to intentionally make, not something that automatically happens.  When I'm bogged down and feeling trapped by life's many 'unfortunate events' I cling to this bible verse:

Arise [from the depression in which circumstances have kept you-rise to a new life]!  Shine (be radiant with the glory of the Lord), for your light has come, and the glory of the Lord has risen upon you! - Isaiah 60:1

There are awesome promises in the above verse.  Yet we ( you and I) need to arise.  We have to get up if we expect God to act.  I'm not talking about our outward condition as much as our emotions.  We need to 'get up' on the inside.  Look at the world,and our problems, from a new perspective.  As children of God, we might have lots of hurdles to overcome, but God deliverers us from them all. When we do our part, God is faithful to do the rest
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The good news is the crippled man obeyed Jesus and 'got up'.  He walked into a new life.  Maybe the reason such a dramatic healing was recorded in the bible is to remind us that nothing is impossible with God.

Imagine the possibilities in your life!