My Hope In Me

“On his arrival, Jesus found that Lazarus had already been in the tomb for four days.”  John 11:17

Timing is critical.  Often times to say or do something at the wrong time causes the impact of our words or our actions to be completely changed.  I am convinced that the same thing is true of God’s hand in our lives.  Sometimes we believe we are at the end of our rope and there is nothing else on which to hold.  We may know that God is in control all the while feeling as though our lives are spinning out of control.  I certainly know that I have been there.  One of those times in my life was in the Fall of 2005.  God had led us away from the church we were serving before providing us with other income.  My wife was pregnant with our second child, and I was recovering from an appendectomy.  Not exactly the most stable of situations.  Yet even without the prospect of income, the bills continued to come and our lives continued to spin.  I was certain God was in control, but I was beginning to wonder if there was something I had done to cause this storm.  Finally, I began to reach the point that I was losing hope.  Amazingly that was exactly the moment for which God was waiting – when my hope in me was gone and God was the only hope I had left.

It was at precisely this same moment that in the lives of Martha and Mary that Jesus arrives at Bethany.  Their brother Lazarus had been in the grave for four days and all hope was gone.  Popular theology at the time held that Lazarus’ spirit had hovered over his body for three days with the hopes that it might reenter and revive him.  But now even that hope was dashed away.  As their brother, Lazarus would have been the source of financial and spiritual support for Martha and Mary.  Now all that support was gone.  Their lives were about to change dramatically.  Their hope was running on empty.  Then Jesus showed up.  To be sure, these sisters had no clue that Jesus was planning on raising Lazarus from the dead, but Jesus did.  You see, Jesus showed up when it seemed as though all hope was lost so that when He did the unimaginable miracle of raising Lazarus the only explanation could be that God had done something indescribable.  What is it in your life that seems insurmountable and hopeless?  Trust me.  God knows everything about your situation.  He has not forsaken you.  Perhaps He is simply waiting for your hope in you to run out so that you are ready for Him to work.  Lay that situation at His feet and let Him work it out as He sees fit.  There is always hope, when that hope is found in Jesus Christ.

The End of the Story

“So then he told them plainly, ‘Lazarus is dead, and for your sake I am glad I was not there, so that you may believe.  But let us go to him.'”  John 11:14-15

During a three to four-year portion of our marriage, my wife and I made some pretty poor financial decisions.  We bought a house we really did not need to buy.  We bought a car when our old car still met all our needs.  We took on a debt load that was really way over our heads.  Simply put, we made some bad decisions.  During the years since that time, we have been working diligently to dig our way out of those decisions.  Happily, I can report that we are almost there.  Often times as I look back at those decisions and I wonder why in the world God would let me do things that were that dumb.  After all, He has the power to make the pen run out of ink before I sign on the dotted line.  He knew what was going to happen.  He knew the stress that those decisions would cause.  Yet, He allowed me to do all of that dumb stuff.  Why?  So that He can be glorified through it.  You see, now that we can – by His incredible grace – see the end of this process we have the ability to see His provision and His abundance with totally different eyes.  We are able to revel in His abundance because we have experienced our own failings.

After becomes apparent that the disciples don’t quite understand Him, Jesus tells them plainly that Lazarus is dead.  There was not sugar-coating and no breaking it to them easily.  In starkly clear language Jesus declares that His friend – whom He loved – is dead.  But in the same kind of language Jesus goes on to say that He is even glad that Lazarus is dead.  I don’t know about you but that sounds incredibly callous and cold-hearted.  However, we cannot forget that Jesus’ statement is not the end of the story.  Jesus knew that He would raise Lazarus from the grave a day later.  He knew that the raising of Lazarus would be so profound that many would come to faith.  He knew that the pain of the moment would be superceded by the incredible joy of being used by God to glorify the Son.  The present circumstance would be replaced by rejoicing if they will only wait until the end of the story.  What is it that you are going through today?  Whether your circumstance involves poor decisions you have made – like my financial decisions – or has nothing to do with choices you have made, you can rest assured that if you turn it over to God He will use it to bring Him glory.  Don’t give up.  Hold on because you haven’t made it to the end of the story.

As He Sees Fit

“So the sisters sent word to Jesus, ‘Lord, the one you love is sick.'”  John 11:3

The other day during a time of prayer, I noticed something about my prayers.  I was bringing the concerns and cares of my heart to Him, but I was not simply leaving the concerns and cares with Him.  I was bringing those issues and then I was proceeding to tell God how He could best address those situations.  It was as though I, as a frail human being, knew better than God how He could glorify Himself through my circumstances.  Sounds pretty silly doesn’t it?  As I realized what I was doing, I began to look back to find out when it began.  Honestly, I have no real idea when I began trying to tell God what to do rather than simply trusting Him.  I expect that if you look honestly at your prayer life, you may very well be doing the same thing that I was.  I wonder though what our lives might look like if we simply handed our circumstances over to Jesus and let Him handle them as He sees fit.

In the verse quoted above we have a wonderful example of how to place everything in His hands.  Mary, Martha, and Lazarus all had a special relationship with Jesus so when Lazarus became very ill it was no surprise that they sought out Jesus’ help.  But the interesting thing about their request is that there really is no request.  They simply presented their difficult and frightening circumstance to Jesus and awaited His response.  Certainly, there is a request to come and help implied in their message.  But their request does not include any specific instructions or information.  They simply wanted to be certain that Jesus knew that they were trusting Him whatever the circumstance.  They were certain of Jesus’ love for them.  They were certain of the severity of Lazarus’ health.  But they chose to trust Jesus’ love more than their understanding of the circumstance.  I wonder, upon which do you and I choose to focus?  Do we focus on the unchanging and all-encompassing love of Jesus Christ or do we focus on our changing circumstances?  Circumstances always change; it is simply a part of living.  But the love of Jesus will never change; it is simply part of who He is.  I don’t presume to know the circumstance you currently experience.  Perhaps your circumstance is wonderful.  Perhaps it is the polar opposite.  Regardless of your circumstance you can rest assured that God loves you and you can trust your circumstance to Him.

Louder Than His Words

“Then Jesus went back across the Jordan to the place where John had been baptizing in the early days.  Here he stayed and many people came to him.  They said, ‘Though John never performed a miraculous sign, all that John said about this man was true.’  And in that place many believed in Jesus.”  John 10:40-42

Jesus left Jerusalem for the last time prior to His triumphant entrance we celebrate on Palm Sunday.  While the religious leaders in Jerusalem were searching out a way to kill and remove Jesus, His reception on the other side of the Jordan was much different.  You see, by this time John the Baptist had been dead for quite some time.  All these men and women had were the memories of their encounters with John and what they could remember about his teaching.  So imagine their joy when Jesus returned to them.  They remembered either seeing or hearing about Jesus’ baptism.  They remembered all that John had declared about Jesus, that He was the long-awaited Messiah who had come to save them from their sin.  They remembered John so they sought Jesus.  Once they encountered Jesus there would be no returning to John.  While John was certainly powerful in word and deed, God had never worked through him as He had worked through Jesus.  Yet this distinction did nothing to downplay the importance of John.  In fact, after they encountered Jesus they paid John the greatest compliment possible – his life pointed people toward Jesus.  Everything that John had said about Jesus had been proven true – all except Him taking away the sins of the world, but even that was only a few months away.  What an amazing thing to hear!  Everything he said about Jesus was true.  His life lead others toward Jesus.

This past week I was honored to speak at the funeral of a friend and deacon here at Highland Hills.  My friend was a good man with an amazing relationship with Jesus Christ.  He served his country well in the Army.  He loved his family well.  And he served his Lord well.  Bill was not a terribly complex man.  What you saw was essentially what you got with him.  Yet, as I talked with his family and friends one thing became abundantly clear.  Bill was not a perfect man – none of us are – but all that his life said about Jesus Christ was true.  We did not need to rely on Bill’s words.  Certainly his words proclaimed Jesus Christ, but so often his life spoke louder than his words.  And his life pointed people to Jesus more than his words could ever do.  What about you and me?  To whom do our lives point people?  Will our lives and our words point people to the same destination or have we fallen into the trap of separating our words from our actions?  Don’t miss the point.  I don’t want any of us to be like my friend.  My prayer for you and for me is that we are more like Jesus.  My prayer is that at the end of our lives we can look back and see that our lives have pointed people to Jesus Christ.  To be certain, for that prayer to be answered, things will have to change.  And we all know change is not easy because it is always a process.  But it is a process that can begin today.

Hesitant To Obey

“Then Gideon said to God, ‘Do not be angry with me.  Let me make just one more request.  Allow me one more test with the fleece.  This time make the fleece dry and the ground covered with dew.’  That night God did so.  Only the fleece was dry; all the ground was covered with dew.”  Judges 6:39-40

I really, really dislike flies.  While I know they serve a purpose in God’s Kingdom, I honestly wish that Noah would have fed them to the frogs.  As much as I dislike flies, I must confess that at times they are a bit amusing.  For example, as I am writing this devotion, I am staring at a fly continually flying full speed into my glass windows.  It goes full speed and then bounces off the glass only to repeat the process in only a few seconds.  I can understand flying into the window a time or two, but at what point in this escape attempt does the fly simply realize that this hasn’t worked out as it planned?  It is as though the fly assumes that if it hits the glass enough then the glass will simply disappear.  I really don’t like flies.

As much as I don’t like flies, I like it even less when my behavior mimics theirs.  When I seek God’s guidance and I know His response, I should not consistently go back to Him hoping to get a different result.  I honestly believe that we have all done this.  God has spoken to us and we bring the same issue back to Him.  Of course, we do this under the spiritual guise of seeking confirmation.  In truth, we have all the confirmation we need in the reality that God has spoken to us.  What we are really searching for is another answer.  We are not satisfied or comfortable with His response, and so we seek another.  We keep flying into the glass while hoping that the glass will simply disappear.  In the verses quoted above, we see Gideon testing God as second time.  First he wanted the fleece wet.  Then he wanted it dry.  But Gideon’s concern was not about the fleece at all.  Neither was his concern focused on confirmation.  He simply was hesitant about stepping out in faith that God could and would do exactly what He said that He would do.  Are you and I really that different?  Do we not hear God but hesitate to obey because we want to be certain that God will fulfill His end of the bargain?  Certainly we do.  And our response makes just as little sense as Gideon’s response did.  So about what has God spoken to you?  Do you really doubt His ability to fulfill His promises?  Let it all go and trust Him.  There is no reason to be hesitant to obey.

The Importance of Me

“Do not believe me unless I do what my Father does.  But if I do it, even though you do not believe me, believe the miracles, that you may know and understand that the Father is in me, and I in the Father.”  John 10:37-38

Jesus has laid down the gauntlet.  The Jews had completely refused to believe in Him.  They had attributed the miracles to everyone – including Satan – but God.  They had ignored, explained away, and rebuked His teaching.  They had threatened to kick out of the synagogue any who believed Jesus’ words.  They had tried on multiple occasions to either arrest Him or simply stone Him on the spot.  Finally, Jesus simply lays it completely bare.  He declares that they should not believe in Him at all – unless His words and His works match what the Bible had revealed about God.  He essentially give them permission to write Him off – unless they look at His works and see that those works cannot be explained without God in the center of the explanation.  On the other hand, if His works of love and mercy did indeed reveal a unique relationship with God those works should be enough to point them to truth that He is genuinely the Son of God who had come into the world.  Jesus was so confident in His relationship with the Father that He could simply look into the eyes of those holding the stones to kill Him and declare that they could simply look at His life and see how His life measured up to His words.  They didn’t have to understand all of His teaching because His living spoke more than loudly enough.

What about us?  Does our living point people to Jesus Christ or do our lives point in another direction?  To be certain, Jesus is the sinless and perfect Son of God, which means He enjoys a relationship with God that exceeds ours.  However, if you are a Christ-follower you have the Holy Spirit living within you to point you to God and to empower you to live the life of love and obedience you were called to live.  The problem all too often is that we want to declare the importance of God with our words while our actions declare the importance of me.  We claim that we have devoted our lives to God, but the reality is that our lives declare that we have devoted our lives to ourselves.  Take a moment and ask God to let you see your life through His eyes.  Will that view reveal a life with united words and actions?  Or will that moment reveal that our true focus has been on the importance of me?  Rest assured, there is always forgiveness.  But this is the time to set aside your and my importance and pick up our crosses and follow the One who set aside everything else for you and for me.  This is the end of the importance of me.

In Search of Another Answer

“Gideon said to God, ‘If you will save Israel by my hand as you have promised – look, I will place a wool fleece on the threshing floor.  If there is dew only on the fleece and all the ground is dry, then I will know that you will save Israel by my hand, as you said.'”  Judges 6:36-37

I am convinced that my children have a hearing problem.  I can sit and explain something to them.  They can say they understand.  They can even repeat my words back to me.  Yet, somehow they don’t get it.  Only moments later they ask me the exact same question that I just answered.  Honestly, I know my children are not unique.  I know that if you are a parent the odds are that your children suffer the same malady.  In fact, my wife assures me that they inherited that trait from me.  I’m not exactly certain what she means by that, but I am sure she will explain it to me again. 

While this hearing problem is essentially only comical, we often display the same hearing problem with God.  Take Gideon in the passage above.  God has already spoken, and Gideon has understood.  Notice Gideon’s words, “as you have promised.”  Gideon knew what God was telling him.  Gideon even knew that God had promised to be with him.  But Gideon continually brought the issue back to God all the while hoping to get a different answer.  It was as though Gideon had more faith in the armies of the Midianites and Amalekites than he did in the God of Israel.  Before we are too harsh on Gideon, we must ask ourselves if we do the same thing.  Have we heard God clearly only to go back to Him in search of another answer?  I confess that I have done that many times, and I suspect that you have as well.  We must learn that God knows everything about our circumstances and our limitations.  He also knows that He has the power to fulfill His promises regardless of those circumstances and limitations.  If God has promised something, you can trust completely in that promise.  So what has He promised you?  Why are you still looking for another answer?