John 11:1-6 (NIV)
1 Now a man named Lazarus was sick. He was from Bethany, the village of Mary and her sister Martha.
2 This Mary, whose brother Lazarus now lay sick, was the same one who poured perfume on the Lord and wiped his feet with her hair.
3 So the sisters sent word to Jesus, "Lord, the one you love is sick."
4 When he heard this, Jesus said, "This sickness will not end in death. No, it is for God's glory so that God's Son may be glorified through it."
5 Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus.
6 Yet when he heard that Lazarus was sick, he stayed where he was two more days.
Why does God allow seemingly “bad” things to happen in our lives? You would think that if God truly loved us He would just allow good things, or what we commonly call “blessings”, to come upon our lives. But in everyday experience we know this doesn’t happen. This is why many Christians end up questioning the Lord, even turning away from Him, frustrated that He does not answer their prayer, or bless them.
Most of us, if not all, know about Lazarus and how Jesus raised him from the dead. But not everyone is quite familiar with the circumstances that were behind this great miracle that brought glory to our Lord.
Lazarus, together with his sisters Mary and Martha, were no ordinary people. They were people whom Jesus loved. They obviously had a special relationship, as seen in the request sent to Jesus “Lord, the one You love is sick”.
And yet, when Jesus finds out that Lazarus was sick the story tells us that He stayed where He was for two more days. And within these two days Lazarus dies. If Jesus loved Lazarus, why did He allow him to die, instead of quickly rushing to his side and healing him?
We all have asked this question once, twice or many times in our life! If God truly loves us, why did He allow this problem to come, or why is He allowing circumstances to get worse, even to seem impossible to solve!
Here is, what I believe, to be the key to understanding this. When the request reaches Jesus, the first thing He proclaims is His purpose in the circumstance: "This sickness will not end in death. No, it is for God's glory so that God's Son may be glorified through it."
Right away He tells His disciples what His ultimate desire was in the circumstance of Lazarus – His glory. God, in His wisdom and love, saw it fit to allow Lazarus to die, so that He would be glorified in the lives not only of Mary, Martha and Lazarus, but also to all who were there.
God could have healed Lazarus’ sickness. But His raising Lazarus from the dead was what He believed would bring Him more glory.
God is sovereign over our lives. He is in control over all that comes and goes into our everyday life – good and bad circumstances. Why does He do that? For one reason, and one reason alone - “it is for God’s glory, that God’s Son may be glorified through it”.
Our human hearts cannot understand this, because we are so used to thinking of our own welfare, of what we think is best. But a Christian is not called to question his Lord, but to submit…submit to an Almighty, Sovereign, Wise and Loving God who holds his life in His hands.
And, a Christian is to desire only one thing – for God to be glorified in our lives. If our God sees fit to glorify His name through blessing, so be it! And, if He also sees it fit to glorify His name through a trial or hardship in our life, then so be it. The chief end of a Christian is to bring glory to God in everything that we do!
So, if you are in a similar situation like Lazarus, where your circumstance turned from good to bad, from bad to worse, turn your hearts towards the Lord, bow before a Sovereign God who holds your life, and trust that the One who controls all things will also grant you strength and wisdom, that it may bring glory to His name and His name alone.
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