Tomorrow more brothers and sisters from the Heritage Church family will join the Crave journey for the final 10 days.
If you are starting tomorrow, you may find it helpful to read some of the earlier posts. Know that I am praying for you, and I’m excited to have you participate in the process.
If you’ve been in the journey, be sure to pray for those who are starting as they go through the initial adjustments, struggles and discomforts of the first few days.
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Day 11 [April 8]
Chapter 11 has several well-known elements. The resurrection of Lazarus and the shortest verse in the Bible are two of them.
Here a few questions to help you think and dig deeper as you read today:
v. 6 – Jesus waits to respond to a specific cry for help! What!? Jesus waited to answer, help or come. Why did He wait 2 days before going? Check out verse 15.
v. 14-15 – Jesus places belief in Him as more important than life and death. Do you have the same priority?
v. 21, 32 – Martha & Mary both greet Jesus with reproach and belief. They had confidence in His ability, but lacked complete trust. They knew he could heal, but they lacked the eyes of faith to trust that He could work within any situation or bring glory to God in any problem. When things don’t go the way you want, how do you respond? With quiet confidence or disappointed frustration?
v. 25-26 – These verses contain another “Gospel in a nutshell” passage. [Ref. John 3:16] “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies; and whoever lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?” John was really good at including these snapshots in his writing. Do you believe?
v. 41-42 – This incredible miracle is preceded by what?…yep…prayer! Prayer changes things. In some respects, even miracles can just be answered prayers. When you pray, do you doubt or believe? It is clear by what Jesus said that He had no doubt. He had great confidence that God heard Him and always heard Him. Knowing we are SENT enhances that confidence. Are your prayers marked with that kind of confidence? Matthew records these words of Jesus, “I tell you the truth, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there’ and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you.” [Matthew 17:20]
Take a few moments today and talk honestly with God about your level of confidence, trust and faith in Him. Are you frustrated by a perceived lack of action? Do you wish He would do more? Faster? Sooner? We serve a God who is able to call men out from death. He knows our needs, and He is able to bring us out of any situation if we let Him. Ask Him to help you maintain complete trust no matter how things seem to turn out and to know with great confidence that “nothing is impossible” with Him.
April 10, 2014
This is a tough passage. It’s easy to believe in God when we see Him taking care of business in a timely manner, but it’s tough when the answer to prayer seems to be either “no”, or “wait”. We’re a really results-oriented culture, and we’re impatient when it takes time for things to work out the way we expect them to. It’s even more challenging when things go in what we think is a wrong direction. It’s tempting to put God in a box, and make Him out to be a Cosmic fireman, ATM, avenger, or teddy bear, as our need suits us. The challenge is to keep believing, regardless, which is usually easier said than done.