A better question is probably, “Where are you stuck?”
In what area of your life are you not making as much progress as you would like?
Is it your finances? Your career?
Your marriage, parenting or another relationship.
Or perhaps it’s your health – physical or mental.
Maybe it’s your relationship with God. Do you feel like you should be more mature, feel closer to Him, be more faithful . . . or joyful . . . or prayerful?
There are times we may feel stuck . . . when in reality we are exactly where we need to be at that particular time.
God may have us waiting for Him to open a door, give us the green light for a dream He wants us to pursue, or help us remain patient while He’s working behind the scenes.
But other times – I believe most of the time . . .
God is waiting on us.
He’s given us direction, he’s shown us the next step, and yet, for some reason, we’re still in a holding pattern.
We’re waiting for something to happen. For one more piece of the puzzle to fall into place. To suddenly feel braver and bolder. Or for one more confirmation – just to be sure we’re headed where God is leading.
If we stay there, waiting, we’re going to get stuck.
I’ve done it. Multiple times. In different areas of my life.
And I did it again, just recently. And God challenged me about it through a Bible story.
It’s in John 5:1-9 – the healing at the pool.
There are several lessons in this passage. The ones I’m going to share are definitely designed for me. But God may speak to you through them, too.
This post is the first of three about this Bible story and covers John 5:1-4 (TPT).
Then Jesus returned to Jerusalem to observe one of the Jewish holy days. 2 Inside the city near the Sheep Gate there is a pool called in Aramaic, The House of Loving Kindness. And this pool is surrounded by five covered porches. 3 Hundreds of sick people were lying there on the porches—the paralyzed, the blind, and the crippled, all of them waiting for their healing. 4 For an angel of God would periodically descend into the pool to stir the waters, and the first one who stepped into the pool after the waters swirled would instantly be healed.
After the scripture tells us about the location and architecture of the pool area, it says that hundreds of sick people were lying around on the five porches.
Lying around waiting.
They were waiting for something that happened periodically—we’re not told how often.
It was something they had no control over. An angel would come down and stir the waters and the first of them into the pool was healed.
So . . . it was kind of like buying a lottery ticket. You’re in the running for the prize. You might be the winner. But the odds are definitely not in your favor.
Here’s what God showed me.
We tend to hang out with people with similar life situations. Who have needs similar to ours. Beliefs and perspectives a lot like ours.
And while that’s very normal and common, it is also very comfortable. Sometimes too comfortable.
It’s too comfortable when we all speak the same language – the language of lack. And when we’re all waiting for someone to rescue us.
Lying around, focusing on what you don’t have, waiting for someone else to do something about it means nothing really good is happening in that area of your life . . .
Nothing is changing.
Your life has become stuck.
God really challenged me and I realized I had become too comfortable . . . again.
With lying around instead of doing.
Complaining instead of taking action.
Continuing to ‘wait on the Lord’ and getting more and more comfortable in my waiting.
I don’t know if this is speaking to anyone else, but I felt led to share it . . . just in case you wanted to ask yourself some of the questions God asked me.
Questions like . . .
- Where are you stuck? Where are the people around you stuck?
- What needs to happen for that area of your life to get unstuck?
- What actions are you taking to make that happen?
- How long have you been stuck?
- Who have you become during that time?