The Mat You Carried Isn’t Your Identity

John 5 is the chapter of the mat. Its the story of a man who has been stuck for a long time and a Savior who refuses to let stuck be the final chapter.

This is Broken to Risen in real time: Jesus meets someone in a place of weakness, speaks life into what feels hopeless, and turns a symbol of brokenness into a testimony carried in the open.

Scripture focus

• John 5:6 Do you want to be healed?
• John 5:8 Get up, take up your bed, and walk.
• John 5:24 Whoever hears my word and believes has passed from death to life.

1) Jesus sees you in the place you’ve learned to survive

The man is lying by the pool of Bethesda among many who are sick and waiting. He’s been there a long time. Long enough that disappointment can start to feel normal.

Then John says something simple but powerful: Jesus saw him.

Devotional reflection:

• Jesus doesn’t overlook you because you’ve been struggling for a while.
• He doesn’t measure your worth by your progress.
• He steps into the places you’ve been trying to endure and calls you by something higher.

2) Do you want to be healed? is deeper than it sounds

Jesus asks a question that can feel obvious: Do you want to be healed?

But its not just about physical healing. Its about identity.

Sometimes we’ve lived with brokenness so long that it becomes familiar. We know how to cope. We know how to explain it. We know how to manage expectations.

Devotional reflection:

Ask yourself:

• Have I gotten comfortable with survival?
• Have I started to believe this is just who I am?
• Am I willing to let Jesus change more than my circumstances my patterns, my excuses, my fears?

3) The man explains the problemJesus gives a command

The man responds with reasons: I have no one and I cant get there in time.

Thats real pain. Real loneliness. Real limitation.

But Jesus doesn’t debate the problem. He speaks resurrection into it:

Get up, take up your bed, and walk.

Notice what Jesus doesn't do:

• He doesn’t wait for the pool.
• He doesn’t require perfect conditions.
• He doesn’t ask the man to understand the how.

He calls him to obey.

Devotional reflection:

Sometimes the miracle is on the other side of a simple, scary step.

4) The mat becomes the message

That bed, that mat, was a symbol of his stuck season. It was what he laid on while life passed by.

And Jesus tells him to pick it up.

Not because Jesus wants to shame him, but because Jesus is rewriting the story:

• What carried your brokenness will now carry your testimony.
• What marked your past will now mark your freedom.

Devotional reflection:

Your mat might not be physical. It might be:

• shame you keep replaying
• anxiety you keep managing
• an addiction history you think disqualifies you
• a label someone put on you
• a failure you cant forget

Jesus doesn’t just want to help you cope with it. He wants to free you from it.

5) Resurrection isn’t just healing its a new direction

Later, Jesus finds the man again and speaks to his life, not just his legs. John 5 refuses to let us treat Jesus like a quick fix.

Jesus is not only restoring bodies. He is calling hearts back to God.

Devotional reflection:

Healing is a gift. But intimacy with Jesus is the goal.

Prayer

Jesus, You see me even in the place I’ve been stuck. I’m tired of surviving. Im tired of carrying what You never meant to define me.

Give me faith to obey Your voice. Help me take the step You’re calling me to take. And turn my mat into a testimony that points back to You.

In Jesus name, amen.

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This weeks step

A: Name your mat.

B: Write one sentence:

Jesus is calling me to get up from __________.

C: Then choose one small act of obedience this week that matches it - a conversation, a boundary, a confession, a habit change, a prayer, a return to church, a step toward help.

Not because you’re strong but because He is.