Roll Away the Stone

Don't you love it when God speaks RIGHT to your heart?  When his message and presence are as obvious as Jesus standing beside his empty tomb?

He did it again for me today, using a lesson from Living Spring audio library: "Relationships: The Most Important Relationship."

It's centered around the story of Jesus bringing Lazarus back from the dead, in John 11.

So, the people tell Jesus his friend, Lazarus, is sick and dying.  When they get to the city, they get the news that Lazarus died.  And the people had to deal with the fact that Jesus had failed their expectations.  "Jesus didn't heal Lazarus...Jesus was wrong...?  He who opened the eyes of the blind couldn't keep this man from dying?"


The entire point of the sermon?
"When we stop giving God advice and we start giving him access, then our lives change."

Our journey through life is just us discovering what God already knows.

When I go through my pain, God goes through it with me.  He sees what I'm going through and says, "Invite me to go with you...I'll bring your heart back to life."  He wants to journey with me through whatever is bothering me.  He asks, "What is it?  What's troubling you?  Come to me...tell me..."

He doesn't just hear our problem, but tells us how to get out of our tombs.  We want to be rescued from the grave, but aren't willing to do the work to roll away the stone.  Like Mary, we say to God, "But it stinks in there!"  The cave is shallow--when you roll back the stone, everyone sees it, and that's what we're afraid of.

If Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead and they DIDN'T roll away the stone, he would die again!  He would suffocate.  It's not just about being saved, but about being FREE, enjoying the benefits of a healed and changed LIFE.

"Did I not tell you that if you believed, you would see the glory of God?"

Personally, I feel like I came on this mission to Kiev hoping to see God's glory...to see him work miracles in my life.  To watch him show his amazing power through me, and what I would experience.  I thought the miracles would be abundant, instantaneous, and painless.


I didn't expect him to wait to perform the miracle.  Like Mary and Martha, I find myself saying, "If you had been here, he wouldn't have died!"  My dreams, my hopes, my expectations wouldn't have been disappointed...I wouldn't be wrestling with faith.

I didn't expect him to ask me to do the work of rolling away my stones, exposing the stinkiest places there so others can see.  (My faithlessness, my insecurity, my core emotional needs....)

My heart is crying out, "Where are you, God?  Why are you letting my dreams, my hopes, my desires die?  This isn't what I expected....I thought you would be here to protect me from pain and disappointment!"

Yet Jesus is saying to me, "I'm glad I wasn't there, so that you may believe." 

That I will believe that anything and everything is possible for him.  That I will believe that, no matter what happens to me, I'll be alive and free, because God is with me, he loves me, and nothing can come between OUR relationship.

And THAT'S what matters in my life.

God has put others in my life to help me take off my grave clothes!  I don't have to live according to my past, how I've responded to my pain and circumstances.  I don't have to live like a prisoner anymore.  I'm free!  But I do need help...

So, I can talk to God personally and say, "This is my problem.  I don't like this in my life, and I need it to change."

Even when I thought God had failed in my life, (failed to do what I expected him to), he is giving me another opportunity to believe in his unbelievable power and love.

And as Jesus said just before he raised Lazarus from the dead, I will see God's glory.

What's died in your life lately?  What issues are you facing that you feel like God didn't heal in time?  Try telling him what's troubling you, and ask for help in those areas--then roll away the stone and let him in.