The next miracle in our series is The Raising Of Lazarus …This miracle is recorded for us in John 11:1-44. This miracle is one of the most well-known of all the Lord’s miracles. Let’s see what we can learn from this very familiar event… (Once again, due to the length of this account, I would ask that you please take the time to read the entire account. Many of the details of this event had to be skipped due to the length of this devotion. There is much more that can be learned from this wonderful event. My apologies.)
Here, we find Christ being sent a message from Lazarus’ sisters (Mary and Martha) telling Him of Lazarus’ sickness. Christ responds by stating, “This sickness is not unto death, but for the glory of God, that the Son of God might be glorified thereby.”. He waits two days before He travels to Lazarus’ home.
Once He arrives Mary confronts Him by saying “Lord, if thou hadst been here, my brother had not died.” We are then told that “When Jesus therefore saw her weeping, and the Jews also weeping which came with her, he groaned in the spirit, and was troubled, And said, Where have ye laid him? They said unto him, Lord, come and see. Jesus wept. Then said the Jews, Behold how he loved him!”
Following Christ’s arrival at the tomb we are told that, “Jesus saith unto her, Said I not unto thee, that, if thou wouldest believe, thou shouldest see the glory of God? Then they took away the stone [from the place] where the dead was laid.” “And Jesus lifted up [his] eyes, and said, Father, I thank thee that thou hast heard me. And I knew that thou hearest me always: but because of the people which stand by I said [it], that they may believe that thou hast sent me.”
And then we read of the victory that was worked by Christ…
“And when he thus had spoken, he cried with a loud voice, Lazarus, come forth. And he that was dead came forth, bound hand and foot with grave clothes: and his face was bound about with a napkin. Jesus saith unto them, Loose him, and let him go.”
If the Lord had not delayed in His traveling to Lazarus…. according to Mary’s testimony, He would have arrived before Lazarus had died. In that case, He would have healed Lazarus of his sickness. Although healing Lazarus would have glorified God, raising him from the dead brought more glory and honor to Christ and His heavenly Father.
What a lesson for us to keep in mind when Christ appears to be delaying an answer to our prayers! We know that our Lord does all things for our good and His glory… Are we experiencing a seeming delay in His answer to our requests? Just remember, He will work in His time and, in doing so, will bring to pass the BEST for us and the GREATEST glory for Himself!
Ps 27:13-14 – [I had fainted], unless I had believed to see the goodness of the LORD in the land of the living. Wait on the LORD: be of good courage, and he shall strengthen thine heart: wait, I say, on the LORD.
May the Lord bless each one of us as we “Think On These Things”.
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Thanks Rob for this great article. Indeed, God’s time is the best but our challenge is to wait patiently for that best time. May God grant us the grace to trust and wait upon his time always.
the difficult part is understanding that ONLY the Lord knows the best time for each event. We have a tendency to think that we know when the timing is best! Lord bless. Thanks for the comment
Excellent post, my brother. Of course, your posts are always very informative and insightful. I apologize, but I did forget to come to you last night and share one of the most recent posts, and excerpt from Soul Collector, my second book in the series. When you have time and you’re not busy, here’s the link http://lynleahz.com/2012/07/03/an-excerpt-from-book-2-soul-collector-could-god-love-lucifer/ Please keep on being blessed, and keep on sharing the gospel of peace and of truth with the world! Blessings of our Father be upon you!
Thanks for the link. I will check it out ASAP. Lord bless.
May we faint NOT…in awaiting God’s perfect way and timing in all matters. Wonderful message of faith! Thank you!
The importance of waithing on Him cannot be overemphasized. Lord bless you.
That for me is a lesson (waiting on the Lord’s timing) that it took me some time to fully realize that…and even when I did in one situation I would fall back into the same thinking in another situation…but I don’t think I’m alone in that….Diane
You are definitely not alone. I think most of us, if not all of us, do the very same thing at times. Thanks for the comments.
When Lazarus ‘came forth’ in response to the Master’s voice, he was still bound in GRAVECLOTHES. I guarantee that once he was loosed from them and clothed in GRACECLOTHES, he never went back to donning those graveclothes.
Sadly, too many people do today.
AMEN… I believe a big reason for this is that we don’t take the time to come to an Scriptural understanding of all He has done for us. In today’s time we look at it like we help God to save us. WE come to Him, WE place our own faith in Him. WE are smart enough to see the truth and act on it. Little do we understand that all our salvation is of God. He did all the work to save. He gave us the faith to place in HIm, He opened our eyes to see the truth. It makes a big difference. We OWE Him our all and out of appreciation give our ALL to Him. This goes right in line iwth your lastest posting. It was a wonderful blessing.
Pastor Rob, these looks at His miracles and the understanding that He did them with a time and purpose in mind, bless me and encourage me so much! You send me hope from Him and I’m rejoicing and praising Him for what all He is yet to do. God bless you!
Debbie,
The Lord is so good…. I am so thankful that the posting was an encouragement to you (I feel like I’m returning the favor! Your blog has been a daily source of encouragement for me as well). Anyhow… we all face times of waiting to see what our Lord will do. If you are like me, it is difficult to wait. This was a great example of why the Lord delays things and why we should be patient with his workings.
Hey! How are you doing? Just wanted to let you know that I’m nominating you for the One Lovely Blog award. God bless!
For more info check out: http://pbus1.wordpress.com/awards/
Congratulations on your receipt of this award. Thank you so much for thinking of SIH ministries. It is a blessing. SIH ministries exists to glroify and honor Christ. it is only through Christ that SIH ministries exists and is the source of any blessing that may be received in the reading of the postings. I give all the glory and honor to Christ for this award and SIH ministries. Lord bleses you and thanks again