“Wilt thou be made whole?” John 5:6 KJV
In John 5 Jesus asked a deformed man, “Do you want to be made whole?” Jesus noticed the imperfection in the man, the part that was causing him disability, and asked if the man wanted wholeness for that part that was lacking. The man wanted the ability to walk. He gave Jesus his imperfection, and Jesus transformed that wanting part of him into wellness, causing the man to know wholeness in his body.
God sees our imperfect parts, not just physical disabilities, but parts of our soul, parts that include our emotions or our thought life. He sees damage that has been caused by wrong choices. He sees pain from past mistakes. He sees the exhaustion from struggling with unhealthy desires. God wants us to be whole in our soul.
For God to be the Lord of our life, He asks that we surrender our lives completely to Him. For some of us, giving God the parts of our life that are healthy is not a problem, but turning over the parts that aren’t presentable can be more difficult. We want to fix those problem areas before we let them go, only God wants us to come to Him now, as we are. God knows that we can’t fix ourselves. He knows that He alone has the power to bring the change that we need. He wants us to trust His love and to turn over the care of our lives to Him. He wants us to turn over everything, the good parts and the messy parts.
There are several reasons why someone would want to hold onto their messy parts. One reason we do this is because we are not truly convinced of God’s love for us. We fear His rejection. Another reason we do this is because we want to be responsible for fixing ourselves. We do this because we are still trying to earn our place before God. We want control; we don’t want to owe God. Another reason is because we don’t really want to give up our messy bits. Sometimes we want to hold onto something we know isn’t pleasing to the Lord.
Jesus did not force wellness on the man in John 5. Jesus did not violate the man’s will. God won’t push us, but He will draw us to willingness choice to trust His love. Because the man trusted Jesus, he was made whole. When we trust God with the imperfect parts of us, that’s when miracles can happen!
Application: There isn’t anything about you that God does not already know about, and He still loves you. Trust His love and let Him touch the parts of you that are hurt, stained, or damaged. He will make you whole.