Where Are You, God? I Don”t See You!

John 11:14 “So he told them plainly, “Lazarus is dead.” 15: “And for your sakes, I’m glad I wasn’t there, for now you will really believe. Come, let’s go see him.”

I understand that life is hard. I have had to travel some pretty big mountains in my journey here on earth. I have lived through 23 major surgeries on my intestines, laid in a hospital bed and heard Dr’s say there is nothing we can do you are going to die,been in a wheelchair told I would not walk again, watched my adopted Mom die a long and brutal death, been sexually, physically and mentally abused from my early childhood, had things stolen from me, had a miscarriage been homeless and hungry the list is goes on. Truthfully, in my life right now I am dealing with some new mountains and some rough terrain. Life is a journey for all of us, some parts are great and some suck! At times we may feel like we are stuck at a stand still, and that we are all alone. We may start thinking Where Are You God? I Don’t See You. We may even begin to think He doesn’t care, or understand us or how much we want something. If your at all like me when those thoughts start to come, I then start to feel guilty, and think wow where is your faith? If that is you, I hope today you will be encouraged.

In the above scripture, we see that Lazarus had died. We can see how much Jesus knew the disciples in that scripture. The next scripture it is Thomas who replies. See Jesus knew that a time would come that Thomas the twin would be doubting Thomas(Yes, that is where that saying comes from) Yet Jesus still with this knowledge chose Thomas to be one of disciples. Jesus knew that He would be able to show Himself to Thomas and remove any of his doubts. EVEN WHEN YOU HAVE DOUBT’S JESUS AND GOD STILL CHOOSES YOU! Jesus wants to reveal His healing powers, His restoring power in your life, just like He did with the disciples. God wants you to ask “Where is the Lord?” God says that in Jeremiah 2:6 “They did not ask. “Where is the Lord of who brought us safely out of Eygpt and led us through the barren wilderness – a land of desserts and pits, an land of drought and death, where no one lives or travels.” Jeremiah 2: 8 “The Priests did not ask”Where is the Lord?” God is telling you that it’s ok to call out and ask “Where are you Lord? He even expects us to do that. So don’t feel guilty about that at all.

I am sure that Martha and Mary (Lazarus’s sisters) wanted to know where Jesus was while watching Lazarus die. Yet, Jesus after hearing how sick Lazarus was stayed 2 more days where He was. I can see the girls pacing around Lazarus bed calling out and thinking, Where are you Jesus? Why are you not coming? Why are you letting us go through this? We know, we believe you can save him, why are you not doing it? Have you ever wondered why you are going through something? Holding a promise, knowing and believing that God can remove the struggle but thinking why is He not? or why the struggle even started. Call out ask Him. Where Are You God? Make part of your calling out include times when you have gotten through other troubles. When we are in new trials God wants us to remember those times, to acknowledge and praise Him for getting us through them. He wants us to ask Where Are You Lord? So He can show up and remove any doubt.

Maybe the removal of doubt is not for you. Lazarus may have had no doubt that Jesus would save him. Yet he still died. Why? Jesus said it was for the good of the disciples to show them His power. So your trial maybe an instrument used to show Jesus and remove doubt from others. Jesus and God are 1 in the same spiritually, and we know Jesus loved Lazarus, the Bible says that Jesus wept when He heard about Lazarus, so we know that God wept. If we go further in John 11:49 we read that Caiaphas says It is better for one man to die, then it goes on to say that it was God who caused him to say that. Sometimes are trials are not for us to learn something about God but for others to see Him through us and believe. Thomas was willing to go with Jesus to Lazarus where he believed they would be stoned and die, but then later Thomas doubted and need to see the holes in Jesus hands to believe. Our scars can show others God and His power, and help remove doubt in their life.

We can have moments and times when we believe and are willing to die for Jesus and then have moments of doubt. Just like Thomas did. It is ok. It’s ok to call out Where are you God? He knows that you will and still chooses you and wants to show up so you can see Him.