John 11:41 “So they took away the stone. Then Jesus looked up and said, “Father, I thank you that you have heard me.” (NIV)
John 11:41 “Then, to the others, “Go ahead, take away the stone.” They removed the stone. Jesus raised his eyes to heaven and prayed, “Father, I’m grateful that you have listened to me.” (MSG)
I have since discovered that this encounter of Jesus with Lazarus is inexhaustible. It is loaded to the teeth, the more I meditate on it the deeper the things I see.
In our focal scripture for today, Jesus finally got to the tomb of Lazarus and spoke a word that doesn’t seem to add up again. How do you get to a grave and give thanks? As a matter of fact, he didn’t give thanks there, he only gave thanks for something he had done in the past.
Here is my focus for this meditation, Jesus, unlike most of us got there and referred to something he had done in the past. I thought he would get there, roll up his sleeves and start to roll out prayer points or better still, declare a 3 day fasting and prayers, probably with a powerful all night program.
But on the contrary he simply thanked God that he had heard him. The statement was in past tense. Beloved, the issue is this, what are you doing before a challenge arises?
The problem with many people is that they only pray, worship God, pray and fast when they encounter problems. When everything is fine with them they sleep, eat and wake up and repeat the process all over again. I once heard of a man that his friend told him he was going to church and he asked his friend, “Hope no problem?”
To him the only time you should go to church is when there is a problem. Well, we might blame him for making such an outrageous statement, but the truth is that many so called believers do same. Many will never fast and pray unless they are told to, you may even have to practically force some people to do it.
To be continued…
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