Pastor Leon’s SOAP: Scripture, Observation, Application, and Prayer

August 3: Nahum 1-3; John 5

Scripture: John (NIV) Jesus is at the pool called Bethesda 5:3 Here a great number of disabled people used to lie down.… 5 One person who was there had been disabled for 38 years. 6 Jesus saw him lying there. He knew that the man had been in that condition for a long time. So he asked him, “Do you want to get well?” 7 “Sir,” the disabled man replied, “I have no one to help me into the pool when an angel stirs the water up. I try to get in, but someone else always goes down ahead of me.” 8 Then Jesus said to him, “Get up! Pick up your mat and walk.” 9 At once the man was healed. He picked up his mat and walked.

Observation: I cannot help but think of this waiting area at the pool of Bethesda as the waiting room in a doctor’s office. People come with hope of getting better. They sit in the waiting room until their name is called. This man was at the pool in hope of getting better. The belief was that the first one in the pool after an angel stirred the waters would be healed—but this man did not have anyone to help him so he was always too slow. And then one day someone asked him a strange question, “Do you want to get well?” Then Jesus said something else…

Application: …when God gives me a command, like “Get up, pick up your mat and walk,” God will also enable me to do what he commands. Like this man, I should not question Him or explain why I cannot do it. I probably know more about Jesus than this man did, so I should obey even more quickly. If He says to do it, I should do it!

Prayer: Lord, you never give me a command that you are not willing to help me fulfill. I have no excuse for disobedience. When you command me to forgive; you will help me. Amen

Pastor Leon

Making friends for time and eternity!