Lessons from John 11: Trust Him Even Though He Appears to Be Silent
What situation or circumstance are you going through right now, where is He asking you to trust Him even though He appears to be silent?
Ask yourself, ask God: How can I grow in my faith through this? Lord, please show me how to trust you more and to be an expression of your love through this difficult and hard thing!
Warren Wiersbe put it like this,
After all, the Father loves His Son and yet the Father permitted His beloved Son to drink the cup of suffering and experience the shame and pain of the cross. We must never think that love and suffering are incompatible.
Certainly, we can see how they come together and unite in Christ Jesus! So we sing, “To God be the glory! Whatever betide” Or like the hymn writer, “It is well with my soul.”
Now verse 7 tells us that two days after hearing this news Jesus said to His disciples, “Let us go back to Judea.”
Yet the disciples who were afraid for His life reminded Jesus of the danger of returning there. They remembered the Jews’ recent attempt to stone Jesus to death in that place.
But Jesus answered their fears by teaching them that God determines one’s span of life. And there are only 12 hours in a day in which one has to complete God’s appointed work. And in doing so according to God’s will and in His light one would be safe and secure. The danger (stumbling) comes when one stays or remains where he or she is due to fear and thus are out of the will of God (darkness) and in even greater danger.
So basically Jesus was teaching the disciples that there was nothing to fear. No one could harm Jesus or them for that matter until God’s set time had come.
I’ll never forget a former Bible study leader telling us it is far safer to be in standing in the middle of Iran than sitting in San Dimas if that is what God has called you to do!
In other words, we are safe and secure in God’s will, doing God’s work, wherever that may be.
Fear paralyzes us, and therefore it hinders the work of God. Yet faith walks forward because our trust is in Him and not in man or the world. Greater is He that’s in me than he that’s in the world.
After Jesus said this, (verse 11) He went on to tell them that Lazarus had fallen asleep. But He was going to wake him up! Kind of like a parent who tells a child that someone has died, Jesus was telling them that Lazarus had died.
And the disciples then questioned Jesus as to why should they bother a sleeping man. They thought he would wake up on his own.
Yet because they failed to understand what He was saying, Jesus told them plainly in verses 14-15 that, “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.”
So Jesus revealed that part of the purpose of His delay was not only to bring glory to God but also to strengthen the faith of these disciples.
And then in verse 16, it was Thomas who shone as a loyal and devoted follower of Jesus as he revealed his willingness to go with Jesus into danger and risk his own life. He suggested to the others, “Let us also go, that we may die with Him.”
Might we be more like Thomas, standing in faith and trust when things get tough!
Terri Hamman
Faith & Fitness Coach