Day 5

John 5:6

When Jesus saw him lying there and knew that he had already been there a long time, he said to him, Do you want to be healed.

We live in a fast paced world where everything is designed to move quickly. From the moment the alarm goes off, the day begins at full speed. Meals are rushed. Schedules are packed. We move from one obligation to the next, often measuring success by how efficiently we can get through it all. Waiting feels out of place in a culture like this.

We constantly ask how long something will take. How fast can we get from point A to point B. How quickly can dinner be made. How long will the line be. Even small delays feel frustrating because we are so accustomed to speed. When we compare that to Scripture, the contrast is striking. Biblical waiting is rarely measured in minutes or hours. It is often measured in years. Waiting was not unusual. It was formative.

Yet we are a people shaped by instant results. When we do not see immediate change in our own lives, frustration begins to build. And when we see what appears to be instant progress or breakthrough in someone else’s life, comparison quietly enters the picture. We begin to ask why it is happening for them and not for us. Over time, the question shifts. We stop questioning the waiting season and start questioning ourselves.

That is what makes John 5 so powerful. The man by the pool has been waiting for thirty eight years. His condition has become part of his identity. Waiting is no longer just something he is experiencing. It is something he is living with. And when Jesus asks him if he wants to be healed, the question is not cruel. It is revealing. Jesus is inviting him to imagine a future that is not defined by how long he has been waiting.

Long seasons of waiting can do something subtle within us. They can convince us that this is just who we are. That this is how life will always be. That hope is risky and expectation is dangerous. Comparison only deepens that belief. We measure our story against someone else’s and quietly conclude that something must be wrong with us.

But Jesus does not define us by our waiting. He sees the length of the season, and He still speaks possibility. Waiting does not disqualify us from healing. It does not determine our future. It does not have the final word.

As you continue these days of prayer and fasting, consider where waiting may have begun to shape how you see yourself. Ask God to help you separate the season you are in from the identity you have taken on. Waiting can be a place of formation, but it does not get to define who you are. Jesus still meets us there, and He still speaks life.

Prayer

God, You see how long we have waited and how deeply it has shaped us. Help us release the identities we have formed around delay, disappointment, or comparison. As we continue this season of prayer and fasting, restore hope where it has faded and remind us that our story is still being written. We trust You in the waiting. Amen