On the Couch With God - Daily Devotional

Biblical Text: John 11:3-17 “I kept returning to three large questions about God…The longer I pondered them, the more I realised that these questions are lodged somewhere in all of us…Is God unfair?… Is God silent?… Is God hidden?” Philip Yancey Too often, we only turn to God when we face impossible situations in our lives. Mary and Martha came to Jesus when other options have been tested and tried without any positive result. Lazarus' sisters knew that He could help and Jesus would help them. They knew and heard the signs and wonders that He has done to others. They knew Jesus loved their brother. For sure, “He’s healed so many others; certainly, he’ll heal the one he loves” (John 11.3). Time goes, and Jesus did not come. Where was he? Why did not Jesus come? We just can wonder how they felt when Jesus did not come to heal Lazarus. Would they think that it was fair, or he was distant or even hidden? Mary and Martha did not realise God's plan went beyond their own thinking. Nei...

Bible Texts: John 11.1-3 “Pain insists upon being attended to. God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in our conscience, but shouts in our pains: it is His megaphone to rouse a deaf world.” ~ C.S. Lewis. Pain appeals when we less expected it. I remember the pain I felt the first time that arthritis manifest itself. In less than a couple of hours, I was unable to walk at all. It felt things went out of my control and took me to a road, never travel before. Mary and Martha felt the whole world took them to a place of great emotional pain. They did all that it was in their hands, but they were no longer capable of doing much as their brother slowly went away. Tears were shed, a struggle arose within them, and they went to seek help. When we face the reality of loss and pain, the Lord helps us grow our faith. It is in our darkest hour that we discover the character of our God. He becomes real to our circumstances. It is not any longer theoretical, but real. Today, let us consider the ...

Bible Reading - John 11:1-43 God often creates unique circumstances in our lives to grow our faith. It may come as a surprise, although it should not. The Lord God is deeply interested in the state of our soul. He works in your life in ways that you may not understand; however, it does not differ from our natural growth. My daughter often feels a sharp pain in the legs days before he would grow. The pain is her body working to be ready for physical growth. The same may be said of the spiritual growth of our soul. There is a lesson to learn as we wait for the growth to occur in our life. However, waiting has never come easy. We ask the Lord to intervene in our situations, as pain and chaos seems to take control of our circumstances. It may be a relationship beyond repair, an illness, a profound sadness for the lost one, or it could be a job loss or a dream that we must let it go. We wait and wait... and wait a little bit more. Mary and Martha waited for their friend, Jesus. He was the O...