Daily Scripture Reflection & Prayer: March 17,2026

LECTIO - Read Scripture Text:   John 5: 1b-11

Jesus went up to Jerusalem. By the sheep market in Jerusalem, there is a pool called in Hebrew Bethesda, having five porticos. In the porches lay a great multitude of ill waiting for the moving of the water. A certain man with an infirmity had been there for thirty-eight years. When Jesus saw him there and knew he’d been ill for a long time, He said to him, “Will you be made whole?”

The man with the infirmity answered him, “Sir, I have no one to lift me into the pool when the waters stir. While I am coming, another one steps down before me.”

Jesus said to him, “Rise, take up your mat and walk.”

And immediately the man was made whole, and he took up his mat and walked. It was a sabbath. And the Jews around him said, “It is the sabbath day. It is not lawful for you to carry your mat.”

He answered them. “He who made me whole said to me, ‘Take up you mat and walk.’”

MEDITATIO - Meditate on text, allow the LORD to touch us with His Word:

Jesus notices the man with the infirmity. Compassion. Jesus asks him if he wants to be made whole. When Jesus says to rise, the man doesn’t question it. He rises immediately. Trust.

ORATIO – Lifting our minds and hearts to the LORD in prayer:

LORD, open my mind and heart to You and to your loving presence and desire for me to be whole. Grant that I may trust You as the man at the pool of Bethesda. May I share with others along the way your love for me and the difference it makes in my life. Amen.

CONTEMPLATIO – Sitting with the LORD in silence for a minute or more