When Jesus healed the man at the Pool of Bethesda, He didn’t simply say, “You’re healed.”
And why not, that would have been more than enough? But everything (literally everything) that Jesus said and did was intentional. This situation was no different. Rather than declaring healing, without second thought, He said, “Rise, take up your mat, and walk.” -John 5:8
Why take up the mat? Why did something so insignificant to these things even matter?
For thirty eight years, that mat represented the man’s condition. It was where he laid, where he begged, where people saw and recognized him… His identity had become inseparable from his suffering.
Then, his encounter with Jesus changed everything.
The mat that once carried him became the mat he was commanded to carry. It was a public declaration that his old life no longer defined him. Every step he took with that mat in his hands proclaimed that what had once held him captive had lost its power. It was a testimony to the encounter he had just experienced with Jesus.
This is how God works, He doesn’t merely rescue us from our past; He redeems it. The scars become testimonies. The chains become evidence of freedom. The place of defeat becomes the platform from which His grace is displayed.
Your greatest weakness does not have to remain your identity. In Christ, it can become one of the clearest demonstrations of His power.
Sometimes, God asks you to pick up the very thing that once carried you so the world can see what only Jesus could have done.
~ Devin
Devin Osborne
The Early Church