Get Up, Take Your Mat, and Go Home.

Hey everyone! Quick encouragement for today.

You ever feel like something is holding you back?

Maybe your weight/health, bad habits, toxic relationships…everyone would complain there’s something in life they’d like to make better. You just can’t seem to get any gumption to go and change it! You feel trapped…lethargic…without any energy or power to try.

We’re all in that boat. But you don’t have to stay there.

I was reading last night in the book of Matthew. I have been doing this “Bible in 1 Year” plan, reading the Bible in a different translation than I normally would…it’s really helping me see Scripture in a new light. In last night’s passage, Jesus was healing a paralytic. Some friends of the paralyzed man brought him to Jesus, lying on a mat. This is the story where Jesus first forgives the sins of the paralytic and is instantly criticized by the “religious men” for forgiving sins instead of just performing a miracle, like usual. Jesus, in the part of His response to the critics, healed the paralytic; telling him to “Get up, take your mat and go home.” I have been thinking of this phrase non-stop since I read it last night.

Imagine, a man who may have never walked in his life, is being told to get up. Not the simplest thing to do when you’ve never walked before! Or at least hadn’t in a long time. You ever feel like you’re being told to stand up when you think it’s impossible? To step out of the situation, to walk away from the thing holding you back.

And it doesn’t stop there. Jesus didn’t just tell him to stand…Jesus said to “Get up, take your mat and go home.” The man who hadn’t walked in years (if ever) is being told to no longer be held down on the mat, but to pick it up and go home! To completely walk away from the situation. Whatever your "mat" is that you've been laying on, it no longer has the power over you. And once we stand up, pick up our mat, we then need to turn and walk away. You need to choose to walk away from the thing that once defeated you.

I remember when I was younger, I didn’t deal with hard situations well. I became more overwhelmed by the idea of the task at hand than the task itself. I remember learning to roller skate, ride a two-wheeler, even drive. My dad would always tell me not to let it beat me, to “throw the serpent in the fire”—a reference from Acts 23:3-5. It helps me remember that if you get worked up, overwhelmed, even overcome by situations, you can always come out of it. Stand up, pick it up—throw the serpent in the fire—and go the other direction.

So I want to encourage you today, maybe its time to stand up. Time to realize you need to change. But don’t stay there. Make a decision to pick up your mat and go home.

What does your "mat" look like?