Writing this<\/a> entry earlier today made me think about Lazarus<\/a> (John 11 1-43).<\/p>\n

I used to feel uncomfortable when those praying women would visit mum at the hospital and pray to God to raise mum like He raised Lazarus. I could not understand how they could compare “fours days dead”<\/a> Lazurus to my mum. While I am still not comfortable with the comparison, having re-read the story I feel as though God has cleared up a few issues and taught me a few things about the story that I had never fully understood.<\/p>\n

Lesson 1<\/b>
\nWhen Jesus is told of Lazarus’ illness he doesn’t rush back to see him; instead he waits a whole TWO days<\/a>!! . <\/p>\n

Here I am waiting on this stubborn coma that has taken hold of mum, at times I feel as if I am literally being held hostage by it, yet Jesus, who loved Lazarus <\/a> more than I could ever love my mum, is not phased by the idea that his friend is ill. I read this and realised I need to stop waiting on the coma and start waiting for the Lord<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Lesson 2<\/b>
\nFinally Jesus makes his way back telling his disciples that Lazarus is asleep<\/a>. Apparently Jesus meant Lazarus was dead but the disciples just didn’t get it<\/a>. <\/p>\n

On the one hand it is reassuring to know that even those who spent time with Jesus while He was a man had problems understanding His message but it has also woken me up to the fact that I need to listen to Him a lot more and really pay attention to what He is saying. It is also yet another reminder that His understanding <\/a>of a situation is much greater than ours. <\/p>\n

Lesson 3<\/b>
\nWhen Jesus arrives at Lazarus’ tomb He calls him by name and tells him to come out <\/a>of the tomb. <\/p>\n

That’s it. No mention of smoke, drum rolls, bright lights or wave of a wand, just a simple command and out comes Lazarus. Death is nothing to our God. He is the same God who hung the sun in the sky with just one command<\/a>. If death is sleep to God then a coma is a siesta.<\/p>\n

Lesson 4<\/b>
\nIn the story of Lazarus Jesus is called the resurrection, <\/a>the life <\/a>, the Teacher<\/a>. He proves He is all these things, however the greatest lesson for me is to be found in the very first few verses of the chapter.<\/p>\n

“This sickness will not end in death. No, it is for God’s glory so that God’s Son may be glorified through it.” (John 11:4) <\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I may not know how mum’s situation may end but what this teaches me is that God knows. He told the disciples from the outset how Lazarus’ situation would end; that is why He didn’t head straight back to be with Lazarus. H Most importantly He told them the purpose of Lazarus’ story. It was for God’s glory and I know no matter what everything that happens in our lives can, and should be for God’s glory; even mum’s situation.<\/p>\n

I shall now take verse 10 <\/a>literally and head straight to bed.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Writing this entry earlier today made me think about Lazarus (John 11 1-43). I used to feel uncomfortable when those praying women would visit mum at the hospital and pray to God to raise mum like He raised Lazarus. I could not understand how they could compare “fours days dead” Lazurus to my mum. While […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-24","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-faith","7":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6Y7Vr-o","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/beginsathome.com\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/beginsathome.com\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/beginsathome.com\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/beginsathome.com\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/beginsathome.com\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/beginsathome.com\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/beginsathome.com\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/beginsathome.com\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/beginsathome.com\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}