Do You?

"Jesus said to her, 'I am the resurrection and the life. Everyone who believes in me will have life, even if they die. And everyone who lives and believes in me will never really die. Martha, do you believe this?' " John 11:25-26

Someone said that the deepest answer to any prayer was His peace. It is so because usually we think we will be at peace AFTER He has answered our prayers in the way we desire. This is not true peace. True peace is to be at rest in the depths of our spirit not only before He answers, but even if He should not. Few of us seem to live in the reality of such a response.

Many years ago, I wrote in one of my prayer journals, "Lord, may I have the mindset and heartset at all times that you are able, in all situations, to deliver, to heal, or resurrect, but even if you do none of these, I will not cease to believe and trust you in all things." I think I've fallen short of that realization more than I've come into it, but I know that my heart's desire is that I will live it out.....day by day, and moment by moment.

The above passage of Scripture is part of the exchange between Martha and Jesus after the death and burial of Martha's brother, Lazarus. For Martha, the worst had happened. Jesus had not come before Lazarus died. She believed that if He'd been there, her brother would have been healed. She still believed in Him as her Lord, but her faith, her peace, was shaken. How often have we been in the very same place? The words Jesus speaks to her soon lead to Him going to the tomb of Lazarus and calling him back to life. Her heart, and that of her sister Mary, as well as all others present, rejoiced in this miraculous work. Yet in the first words Jesus spoke to her is a truth that in our time of desperate need, in our time of darkness and pain, we so easily forget. He said to her, "I am the resurrection and the life." Then He asked her if she believed this. He asks us as well. Most especially does He ask this in our own hour of desperation. Do we believe it no matter what He does next?

The only way we can be at peace, deep, settled peace in our spirit, is if we believe, deeply believe, that in all things, in all needs, in all prayers, He is the resurrection and the life. He is this whether or not we receive the answer we seek. He is this when all the circumstances before us say He's not that at all. He is this when all of hell itself shouts that He's a liar. We are at peace because we know, by experience, that He is exactly who He says He is. And we trust Him. Even when He's three days late, as He was with Lazarus. Because when we believe this, we find, always, that Jesus Christ is never late. He is always right on time in establishing all of His purpose for us. Knowing this is trust. Knowing this is peace.

Where we are now, as the church, as families, as individual believers, we need to have this question settled. He is the resurrection and the life, reigning over death in all of its forms and ways. Do we believe this? Can we live in His deepest answer to our prayers; that He is, beyond any doubt, the resurrection and the life, and that He is such to us?

Blessings,
Pastor O