FOR GOD’S GLORY

• DAY 219
• FAITH FILE: LAZARUS
• SCRIPTURES: JOHN 11:1-4

Now a certain man was sick, Lazarus of Bethany, the town of Mary and her sister Martha. It was that Mary who anointed the Lord with fragrant oil and wiped His feet with her hair, whose brother Lazarus was sick. Therefore the sisters sent to Him, saying, “Lord, behold, he whom You love is sick.” When Jesus heard that, He said, “This sickness is not unto death, but for the glory of God, that the Son of God may be glorified through it.”

In our text today, Jesus hears that somebody that He loves is sick. And in the true Jesus nature, He is unworried, unperturbed, and unafraid. He’s not disturbed about the outcome because Jesus, while He was on earth, was not a fearful person like most of us are today. He had complete confidence and dependence on His Father, God.  On hearing this news He makes a statement that is the focus of our study today. “This sickness is not unto death, but that the Lord may be glorified.” However, when we read some verses later, we discover that Lazarus later dies.

You see, when I read the Bible I try to follow it as an unfolding story and put myself in that reality. Because I know it is an account of somebody’s life, a historical record. It is not just a good story written beautifully or told dramatically. So I can’t help but think that if I was in this reality, I would have asked myself, “Did Jesus lie?”

Don’t Assume

Same thing I asked when my sister was ill and we got a word of prophecy that she was going to be healed and God was going to give her peace. We automatically assumed that God meant the cancer was going to leave her body and she was going to be healthy and with us here. We weren’t wrong to believe because God does not lie. If He says something, what He says is exactly what He means and He will do it like he said it.

However, what I’ve come to learn is that sometimes He says one thing and we interpret it to mean something else. For example, when Jesus says to the disciples, “Our brother Lazarus sleeps and we go to wake him.” They assumed that he was resting, not that he was dead. Because believers cannot actually die. They sleep on this side of eternity and they wake up with Christ on the other side of eternity. So they remain alive. A believer is only dead when they are separated from God. So if you were to go to hell, for example, you are dead. But if you return to the Lord, you continue to live in Him like you were living in Him here on the earth.

His Glory, His Choice

So Jesus says. This sickness is not unto death, but that God may be glorified. And often when we hear something similar we assume that whatever we are asking for is what God means. If we are asking for money we think it’s money. We hardly stop to consider, “How does God want to be glorified?” Because God is the one that gets to decide how He wants to be glorified in the situations of our lives and we have to be okay with that. God decided that how He wanted to be glorified in the case of Lazarus was through a resurrection, not a healing.

Sometimes when we hear a word from God or when we go to him to pray, we have expectations of the way that He should answer us. And so when He speaks to us, we may interpret it on the basis of our expectations. And sometimes we try to dictate to Him how to answer. However, we need to remember that God gets the autonomy of decision when it comes to how He wants to answer our prayers and what He considers to be what will bring him glory or not.

Trust God

God did get glory from Lazarus’s life, just as God will get glory from your life. But you have to trust that God knows what He’s talking about. And even if your current reality may not align with what you think or with what you interpreted God’s word to mean, what you need to do is pray, “God, you gave me this word. Your word cannot fall to the ground and I trust that you are going to get glory out of this situation.”

Whatever it is that God has said, it will come to pass. But you have to stop projecting your expectations into God’s promises and allow Him to bring the promise to pass the way that He wants to do it. That way you save your heart from every form of anxiety and you shut the door against fear, anxiety, and worry. Trust that God has you.

Take this moment right now to pray to God and tell him, Father, I trust you. I trust that you know how it is that you want to bring glory to yourself. And I’m going to wait for you to bring that glory the way that you prefer. In Jesus’ name.

Amen.