Miracles

I don’t know why, but I felt compelled to read through the book of John in its entirety. Sometimes, the best way of getting to know Jesus more is by looking at exactly who He is and what He did while on earth. As I read, I got stuck on this: It seems like people would get mad that Jesus took His time on things. And he did. He didn’t rush anything. Everything was done in His time as designed by God. Mary and Martha were the sisters of Lazarus (yup, the one who died.) Jesus heard that Lazarus was sick and waited two days before even making His way back to Bethany, the town they lived, to visit them. The Bible says specifically that he loved this family deeply (v. 5) Yet, He still tarried. Why wait if someone you love deeply is ill? When Jesus finally arrived in Bethany, Lazarus had been dead for four days. Both Mary and Martha confronted Jesus in tears and said, “if you were here, you could’ve saved him! He wouldn’t have died!” And it kinda just dawned on me: Mary and Martha *had* enough faith that Jesus could perform the miracle of preventing death; they knew He could’ve healed Lazarus. But they didn’t have enough faith that he could reverse death itself. They didn’t say “Oh Lord, bring our brother back from the grave”. They said, “Oh Lord, where were you? You loved Lazarus and you didn’t come. What took you so long?” as if there was an element of blame. How much Jesus loved Lazarus was reflected in the fact that he brought him back from the grave. Jesus was exactly on time because his slight delay made God be glorified all the more. He did not just heal a sick man, He did the impossible: He reversed death itself. The way Jesus went about it strengthened people’s faith- He directly challenged Mary and Martha “do you believe I am who I say I am?” I think, when praying for miracles, it’s not just knowing that Jesus is capable of them but remembering that He is capable when it’s not looking good, when the prayers seemingly went unanswered, when it’s not panning out how we expected it, when the situation we are praying overlooks dead as a doornail. I’ve found it helpful to read the miracles Jesus performed and after each one, I ask myself, “do I believe He really did this? Is Christ who He said He is? “ Also, take note of people’s reactions to His miracles. Did they believe He was capable? What was their response to Christ’s delay? Then ask ourselves- even when things aren’t done in our time or our way, is He still capable of making it all work together for His ultimate glory?