Key scripture – “Now a certain man was ill, Lazarus of Bethany, the village of Mary and her sister Martha. It was Mary who anointed the Lord with ointment and wiped his feet with her hair, whose brother Lazarus was ill. So the sisters sent to him, saying, “Lord, he whom you love is ill.” But when Jesus heard it he said, “This illness does not lead to death. It is for the glory of God, so that the Son of God may be glorified through it.” (John 11:1-4).

When your heart is troubled and you are afraid where do you turn for comfort?

When you look out and the wind and waves are so bad that all you can see is whitecaps breaking in front of you, and you can’t see any peace or calmness on the horizon, what do you do?

When your heart is troubled and fear is starting to overwhelm you, you need to pick up your Bible and read the story of Lazarus in John Chapter 11. This is where Jesus used his power to bring Lazarus back from the dead and it is an example of the same power that you have access to every day because if you are a Christian, Jesus lives in you and that same power is in you.

Here are the five truths in John 11 for troubled hearts.

1. It is not over until Jesus says it is over. That is so comforting we could stop right there. But we won’t because there is so much more. When Jesus heard about Lazarus he said, “This illness does not lead to death. It is for the glory of God, so that the Son of God may be glorified through it.” (V.4).

Are you in the middle of some bad test results, an uncertain future, severe financial problems, health problems, job loss, on the verge of bankruptcy? Then this word is for you. Your situation is for the glory of God. You need to know that what you are going through is there so that the Son of God may be glorified through it.

As you stand and look out over the physical, emotional, and financial landscape of your life. What are you letting shape your reality? Is it your feelings or the Word of God? If you are a Jesus follower you don’t go by your feelings or emotions. You are not shaped by your opinion or what you feel or what others think. You are shaped by what you know, by what the Scriptures say. That is why you can say with conviction, “It is not over till Jesus says it is over.”

You need to remember and let this soak in, no matter what it looks like, no matter what it feels like, nothing is over until Jesus says it’s over. You need to say to God right now, “Father, no matter what it looks like, no matter how I feel, nothing is over until Jesus says it is over.” And keep saying it over and over and over.

2. What appears unloving to us may be God’s greatest kindness. In John 11 verses 3, 5, and 6 it says three times that Jesus loved them, but it also says when Jesus heard that Lazarus was ill he stayed two days longer.

Now you are probably wondering, “Why would He do that?” You need to understand this, your heart is going to be troubled for a long time if you draw a line trying to connect how Jesus handles things and how you think He should handle things. You are probably thinking, “If I had gotten the news that someone I loved was sick, I would have done just the opposite of what Jesus did. I would have rushed to them, because the sooner I get there the sooner I could help them. I would not want to wait too long because the opportunity to help them might be gone.”

But how long is too long for Jesus? How late is too late for him? When did Jesus ever arrive with what was needed and He ended up saying, “Oh I wish I’d come sooner.” That never happens with Jesus because He is always on time with the right thing that is needed in every situation.

Time does not diminish Jesus’ capacity to help. Time actually enhances the reality of our own inability to fix the problem and it shows us the depth of Jesus’ provision. The longer Jesus waited the more it became a situation that only He could solve. That is awesome!

In order to understand how God loves us, we need to stop using our own limited understanding and start allowing the Scriptures to shape our understanding of how God loves. God’s love is a perfecting love.

These are the ways that God loves.

a. For my growth. When we say that God’s love is a perfecting love it means he is trying to grow you. He is trying to make you more than you are. He is trying to make you better and better able. God has a higher standard for us than we even have for ourselves. Contrary to popular belief, the trial, difficulty or hardship that we are going through is not the absence of God but it is proof of God’s love. “For the Lord disciplines the one he loves, and chastises every son whom he receives.” (Hebrews 12:6).

b. For my good. When you are in the valley, and we’ve all been there, Psalm 27:13 is what you can feed on, stand on, rest on, and put all your weight on. “I believe that I shall look upon the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living!” (Psalm 27:13).

When you are in the deepest, deepest, deepest valley that you’ve ever been in, you can always rely on the goodness of God. When you are in a place where you are thinking, “What is God doing?” Go to Psalm 27:13. You need to claim that verse when you can’t see His goodness, when you do not understand what is going on, because you will see it. You will be able to say, “I have tasted and seen that the Lord is good.” (Psalm 34:8). You will be able to say, “God is causing all things to work together for my good.” (Romans 8:28).

c. God loves over the long haul. If you are expecting God to always prove His love in the next few minutes you will be sadly disappointed, He does do that, however, you will have seasons where you are not seeing God, but you can rest assured He is still there and He is doing 1000 things behind the scenes that pertain to your problem.

The way God loves is over years and decades. When you look back over your life, His love will be obvious. It may seem for a season your enemy or your circumstances are getting the best of you, but in the end you will see God’s love come through. You will see that He loves over the long haul and that “no weapon formed against you will prosper and every tongue that rises against you in judgment you will condemn.” (Isaiah 54:17a).

So think about this for a second, The Lord God Almighty, The Maker of Heaven and Earth is on your team, He has your back. He is in front of you, behind you and right beside you. With Him, you don’t need anyone else on your team. That is why you can say with authority, strength, and courage, “If God is for me who can be against me.” (Romans 8:31). That is everything.

d. He loves us apart from performance. Maybe you did something this week that you’re ashamed of. Maybe you fell in a way that you thought you never would fall like that. Maybe you said something and it did not sound like you. Maybe you put off things in your life that should’ve been a priority. Or maybe you had a great week and everything went right. Here’s the thing, whether you were on the mountain or in the valley, God loves us apart from our performance. We don’t deserve it, we didn’t earn it, and His love does not rise or fall based on our performance. How Awesome is that! God loves you apart from your performance. “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.” (Romans 8:1).

e. Apart from circumstances. Your life will lead you into places where it is hard, but God loves you apart from your circumstances. No matter what is going on in your life, nothing can separate you from the love of God. That is why Paul said, “For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Romans 8:38-39).

No circumstance changes God’s love for you. His love is as great today as it has ever been. His love has not diminished one little bit since He first set His love upon you in Christ.

3. As long as I am in the light nothing can hurt me. If we walk in the light as He is in the light, which is: being in fellowship with Christ; living in obedience to God’s Word; submitting to His will; listening to the Holy Spirit, nothing can hurt us because we are in the light.

Jesus makes this clear to us that when we are in the light nothing can hurt us. We see this when He tells the disciples that on the way to see Lazarus, they were going to go through Jerusalem.

The last time Jesus was in Jerusalem the Jews had picked up stones to stone Him. So now Jesus is saying to His disciples, come on let’s go back to Jerusalem and when He said that the disciples freaked out because they were scared. “The disciples said to him, “Rabbi, the Jews were just now seeking to stone you, and are you going there again?” (John 11:8). “Jesus answered, “Are there not twelve hours in the day? If anyone walks in the day, he does not stumble, because he sees the light of this world. But if anyone walks in the night, he stumbles, because the light is not in him.” (John 11:9-10).

When Jesus answered the disciples, He starts out talking about physical light and then ends up talking about the light inside of us. He was using an analogy of the light outside to the light of Jesus inside of us. He is telling us, as long as we are in the light nothing can hurt us.

What Jesus is saying is, “Yes, I remember the stones, but we are doing the will of God, and we are walking in obedience to God, and as long as we are doing that, as long as we are walking in submission to what is right, nothing can hurt us.”

Is this a message for you right now in your life? Are you standing over a difficult decision? Are you saying to yourself, “What am I going to do?” This is what you are going to do, you are going to do what is right. You’re thinking, “That’s gonna be so hard.” Stop listening to Satan and just do it, do what is right. Forgive someone, stand up for the truth, make a big move, choose the right thing. Take this to heart, as long as you are in the light nothing can hurt you. It may be hard for a while but you will not be hurt in the end. Forget about the stones, forget about what is coming, and just do what God wants you to do and leave the results with Him.

The safest place for us to be is in the center of God’s will. Gods will is right there in front of you, whatever your hand finds to do that is right, do it with all of your might. We don’t need to be concerned with comfort, we don’t need convenience, we need obedience. We need God’s partnership with us and we can have that when we live in obedience to His Word.

4. God is at work in every circumstance building my faith. In Verse 11, Jesus tells the disciples let’s go see Lazarus he’s fallen asleep. “After saying these things, he said to them, “Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep, but I go to awaken him.” (John 11:11). He clearly does not mean that Lazarus is asleep and He’s going to wake him, He means Lazarus has died and He’s going to wake him. All through the Scriptures sleep is a metaphor for death.

The disciples still did not want to go back to Jerusalem, so they said, “Lord, if he has fallen asleep, he will recover.” (John 11:12).

Like the disciples, if you don’t want something to be true you can convince yourself of a lot, and that is why the disciples said that Lazarus would recover because they were afraid to go back through Jerusalem because of the potential stoning. The Disciples were like, “Lord if he’s fallen asleep he’ll recover, you don’t need us to go down there and shake him to wake him up.” So Jesus clarifies for them and says ” “Lazarus has died.” (John 11:14)Then he says, “and for your sake I am glad that I was not there, so that you may believe. But let us go to him.” (John 11:15).

Like the disciples, how much is going on in your life right now that is really about you needing to believe and have faith? You need more believing and less doubting the promises of God. Less wondering and questioning, and more leaning into and putting all your weight on the promises of God. You need to believe and act on what God has said in His word. You need to remember that God is at work in every circumstance in your life building your faith. Some of you are facing something and your faith is failing, but God’s goal in that situation is not that your faith would fail, but that your faith would increase.

The Bible says that the little bit of faith that we have matters. Some of you need to move past the “sippy cup” type faith. You need to get to a place in your life where you know and believe the promises of God because He said it, you believe Him. You don’t have to convince yourself, “Is God really good,” you know it because He said it, you believe Him, and you have seen it. You don’t have to convince yourself, “Is God really in control,” you know it, you believe it, and you’ve seen it. You know and believe, “God can do it, and He will do it.”

You might be thinking, I am not there yet with my faith.” You will be. You will get to the place where you will have a reservoir of faith so much so that no matter what happens in your life nothing will shake your faith. No matter what comes, no matter what, you are going to trust God. You are not going to wonder. You are not going to wander. You are not going to wallow in self-pity. You will not live in fear. You will not worry. You will believe and know that God is at work in every circumstance increasing your faith.

5. Believing begins the blessing. Look at verse 16 what Thomas said. “So Thomas, called the Twin, said to his fellow disciples, “Let us also go, that we may die with him.” (John 11:16).This is the same guy who we see later on between Good Friday and Easter, was a doubter. However, here Thomas said, “Let us also go so that we may die with him.”

Thomas is like, “let’s do this. We’re going to just go to Jerusalem and we’re probably going to get stoned, but let’s go with Jesus. Let’s lean into this, because if this is what’s coming let’s get on it.” Thomas didn’t get this one wrong. How many of us have had high points and low points like Thomas. This was Thomas’ High Point trusting and following Jesus no matter how bad or what the circumstances looked like.

When Jesus got there he found that Lazarus had been in the ground for four days. Everyone there was consoling Mary and Martha. When Martha heard that Jesus was coming she ran to meet him. She went straight up to Jesus and she’s approaching him as someone who has got something to say to Him. Martha and Mary knew Jesus well and they were comfortable bringing their complaints to him and that is why Martha said “Lord if you’d been here my brother would not have died.” (John 11:21). That is a true statement and that is why Jesus stayed away.

Martha went on to say, “Even now I know that whatever you ask from God he will give you.” (John 11:22). That is also true and that is awesome faith that Martha has.

Jesus says to her “Your brother will rise again.” (John 11:23). Martha’s response to that is, ” I know he’ll rise again in the resurrection on the last day.” (John 11:24). She is saying, “I know I’m going to see him in heaven, however, I was hoping we would have him a little longer here.” Jesus responded by saying, “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this?” (John 11:25-26).

Do you understand what Jesus is saying, Christians don’t die. Christians close their eyes and go to sleep, and all of a sudden they are in paradise. The minute we are absent from the earth we are present with the Lord and celebrating in heaven. One minute you’re saying, “I wonder how this is going to….” and before you can finish that sentence, in the next second you are in heaven. WooHoo! That is awesome!!

Jesus said everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this? In order to receive any blessings from God you have to believe in Jesus and accept Him as your Lord and Savior. Believing begins the blessing. There is no blessing if you don’t believe this about Jesus.

Can you believe this with regard to a family member of yours that is so far away from God that you can’t imagine how they will come back? Can you believe this about a health issue, your job and your finances? Remember, nothing is over until Jesus says it’s over.

Can you believe that what appears to you to be unloving may be God’s greatest blessing for you, and that someday you will say that your worst situation was your biggest and best blessing?

Can you believe that God is at work in every circumstance building your faith?

Can you believe that the safest place for you is at the center of God’s will, even if it is hard, uncomfortable, and not pleasing to you?

Can you believe that there is no relief outside of God’s will?

Can you believe that when you step out in faith that begins the blessing, and that nothing good is coming if you don’t believe that Jesus is your Lord and Savior?

Pray this – Our Precious Heavenly Father, move by Your Spirit on me and strengthen my faith and trust in You. I believe. Forgive me for questioning Your love when I am focused on my circumstances and not on You. Help me not to take my reality from what I see or feel, but help me instead to take it from Your Word and Your promises. You are always faithful to your promises, that is my reality and I believe it! I believe in You and Your Word! Father, I will trust you with every moment of every day. I want to live Your Word, embrace it, taste it, and see how good you are. I know that Jesus is able to care for me, and will care for me, even in my darkest hour. I am in the light because I abide in Jesus and He abides in me. Father, no matter what anyone says, no matter what it looks like, and no matter how I feel, nothing is over until Jesus says it is over. In Jesus, my Lord and Savior’s Name, I pray, Amen.

Credit: The Holy Bible
John 11:1–4
todaysword.org
Google Images

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