Today I want to share an except from a book I was reading about a month ago. The book is titled; Having A Mary Heart In a Martha World by Joanna Weaver. It is a book I would highly recommend to anyone.
Chapter 8 of the book is titled Lessons From Lazarus and the text is John 11:1,3.
Now a man named Lazarus was sick....so the sisters sent word to Jesus, "Lord the one you love is sick".
Four lessons can be drawn from these two verses;
- God's will does not always proceed in a straight line
When Lazarus' sisters sent word to Jesus that their brother was sick they must have thought he would go and heal him immediately. But Jesus did not until Lazarus died and was buried. This means we will not always understand God's plan, one reason for this is that God is weaving together a greater glory than just our own...all things work together for good to those who love the Lord. So don't get upset when point A does not automatically lead to point B. God always has a plan, but it may not follow human logic. He always has the big picture in mind as he handles the stories of our lives. We will not always see the pattern in what happens to us.
God's love sometimes taries for our good and his glory
We live in a world so big on cause and effect. We want explanations, we want to know why. But we must understand that we are not pawns on some celestial chessboard, expendable and unimportant. We are cherished and highly loved. While we may not fully understand why God's love sometimes lingers, we can rest assured that God's love is always at work. He may not move according to our schedule, but he is right on time for what is best. And he has our ultimate good forever in mind.
God's ways are not our ways but his character is still dependable
We might not be able to see the end of the story but we can trust the storyteller. Martha and Mary, while waiting at Lazarus' deathbed waiting for Jesus to arrive had nothing to hang on to except what they knew about Jesus' character. They knew Jesus loved their brother, that he had the power to heal. In times of struggle and difficult circumstances let us go back and remind ourselves about the God we know. You find out that the God you know is the God you can hold on to, even when his stories dont unfold the way we think they should.
- God's plan is released when we believe and obey
Faith and obedience go hand in hand. It takes faith to choose obedience even when you are shaking with fear. But when God speaks a promise to our hearts we can take him at his word. Jesus wept, and he weeps with us as well. Though he sees the joyful ending just around the bend, he still gets down in the middle of our sorrow and holds us close, mingling his tears with our own.
Thanks for reading,
Signed with love,
Kay.
