Running The Race To WinSample

Have you ever felt like God let you down? Though I have felt this way many times, I know that God is perfect and we are imperfect. God has better plans than us, but the feeling that God is at fault can still creep up. During these times, God’s grace is still sufficient.

In John chapter 11, Mary and Martha probably experience a feeling similar to the one I just described. After their brother, Lazarus, gets deathly sick, they send Jesus an appeal for help. Jesus says the sickness is not going to be the end of Lazarus, but He waits another couple of days before departing. Have you ever felt like God is hanging out when He should be acting on your behalf? Jesus is not just wasting time. Verse 4 shows us that His reason for waiting is determined by His desire to bring glory to God.

By the time Jesus arrives, He is too late and Lazarus is dead. It seems like Martha and Mary have good reason to be upset with Jesus. Verse 21 says,

“Martha then said to Jesus, ‘Lord, if You had been here, my brother would not have died.’”

She bluntly reminds Jesus of His ability (or maybe even supposed responsibility) to do something. Have you ever said “You let this happen” to God? God knows and He still cares.

Now we get to the part of the story where Martha says something spectacular, and it is something that some of us say too infrequently. In verse 22, she says,

“‘Even now I know that whatever You ask of God, God will give You.’”

Martha understands that God is still in control—that He can still do all things. God is not sluggish, but we often doubt His words because we don’t like the state He let things get into. Soon after this statement by Martha, Jesus raises Lazarus to life. He is God, after all. It is not too late, and it is not too difficult for Him—then or today.

Believe that God is still God, no matter the situation. He desires for us to believe He can still do all things and He still has a good plan in mind for us. The way we believe this is by continuously returning to the scene of the cross. Jesus died so we could have life and be made righteous before God. Someone who loves us enough to do that is Someone we can trust to have our best in mind. No matter what state our lives are in, His grace is there to pick us up. No matter what, His love and friendship will see us through.