When He heard that he was
sick, He stayed two more days in the place where He was. —John 11:6
{CHAMBERS} “Has God trusted you with His silence— a silence that has
great meaning? God’s silences are actually His answers. Just think of those
days of absolute silence in the home at Bethany! Is there anything comparable
to those days in your life? Can God trust you like that, or are you still
asking Him for a visible answer? […] Are you mourning before God because you
have not had an audible response? […] If God has given you a silence, then
praise Him— He is bringing you into the mainstream of His purposes. […] For a
while you may have said, “I asked God to give me bread, but He gave me a stone
instead” (see Matthew 7:9). He did not give you a stone, and today you
find that He gave you the “bread of life” (John 6:35). If Jesus Christ is
bringing you into the understanding that prayer is for the glorifying of His
Father, then He will give you the first sign of His intimacy— silence.”
{ELGIN} Certainly Mary and Martha expected Jesus to react immediately
to their message to Him. Why wouldn’t
Jesus stop what He was doing and run to the aid of His friend? Wouldn’t you do that? I mean, a friend in need is a friend in deed,
right? What they asked was certainly
well within Jesus ability, healing the sick.
The thing is, God’s ways are not our ways and His thoughts are not our
thoughts.(Isaiah 55:8) Jesus knew
that even though there would be great sorrow and worry over this illness, that
what Mary and Martha thought was the end of things, Jesus knew that it was not
the end. We look at life’s circumstances
and consider them as hopeless, inevitable.
But God is not limited by our lack of faith in Him, our lack of
spiritual perspective. “Jesus said,
“This sickness will not end in death. No, it is for God’s glory” (John 11:4) The chief end of man is to glorify God and enjoy
Him forever. Are you willing to allow
God to be glorified through you? No
matter how that happens? I can tell you
from personal experience, it will stretch your faith and will demand a
sacrifice in some measure. “Then Jesus
said, “Did I not tell you that if you believe, you will see the glory of God?””
(John 11:40) So Jesus did the humanly impossible, the unimaginable
– He called Lazarus out of the tomb.
What is it that is happening in your life for which you see no hope? Trust God and not yourself (Proverbs 3:5-8) Our God – “is the God
of all comfort who comforts us in our affliction.” (2 Corinthians 1:3-4) What circumstance is your Lazarus, that you
have accounted as dead, lacking any possibility of hope that it can live again, that God will use as an opportunity to be
glorified? Are you willing to allow God
to use your life for His glory? Are your
sure?
No comments:
Post a Comment