Finding Grace in Disappointment (Lessons from Lazarus)Sample

Earthly circumstance vs Kingdom purpose

“Now even though Jesus loved Mary, Martha, and Lazarus, he remained where he was for two more days.” (Jn 11:5-6 TPT)

The ‘even though’ times of life. 

Do you know them? 

The ones where it seems like God has missed your need, forgotten your fight, not heard your prayer. The ones that may not be two days, but may be two weeks, two months, two years...two decades.

They are tough times.

It can become difficult for our soul to trust when God seems absent, and we start to believe instead that His seeming lack of intervention equates to a lack of love for us.

In our reading in the story of Lazarus today, we are called us to lift our eyes above whatever is going on around us and believe that God remains true to His purpose, and no matter what comes against us, He deeply loves us. Our earthly circumstance does not reflect the depth of His love for us. He LOVES you!

Still, sometimes these kinds of times when we are calling out to God for His help and His intervention can be incredibly painful and traumatic for us. And require a deeper level of knowing Jesus to find any kind of good in them.

There is a pattern of moving through these times, and when Jesus is invited into them, it is not only possible, but certain that our relationship with Him is sweeter and deeper than ever before. Very often the circumstance turns around. Without Him? Rarely.

Isaiah 61 gives us a stunning prophetic picture of the same Jesus we find here being close friends of Mary, Martha and Lazarus. And part of this chapter speaks to how He will restore and rebuild ruins. Things that look like rubble in our lives can be restored and rebuilt in a way that will take our breath away when we place them in His hands. 

The process of restoring and rebuilding are intimately beautiful for you, but there is a third part that can also often become part of the story if we surrender it all to Him. His capacity to redeem and bring even greater purpose out of it by being able to show someone else how to trust Him in the same journey, to show someone else how to let Him keep holding them the way we learned to be held. To help someone else by being able to say, ‘This is the way through. I know, because I have walked the path. And the path leads into His goodness and grace.’ 

That’s a powerful and sacred redemptive work of God, an overflow of His work in you to others. That’s bringing glory and praise to God, it’s revealing the greatness of His Son Jesus.

That’s walking in kingdom realms, not earthly circumstance.

So remember in those ‘even though’ times, that He loves you.

He knows what your tomorrow holds for He exists outside time and time is subject to Him. He has walked through your tomorrow, your next week, your next month and He knows what lies before you.

Your circumstances around you do not reflect the depth of His love for you. His love is unchanging and eternal, and not based on temporal, earthly things that pass away.

He loves you. 

Let Him show you His love today…