"...if you had been here..."

     My friend who has an autoimmune disease said to me, “You don’t understand, I would do anything to be healed.  If it meant touching my toes three times or some other prescribed thing, I would do it in the hope, that would be the thing which would bring healing.”  His statement sent me on a journey to settle within myself the issue of answered or unanswered prayer.  I had noticed in my prayer journal I had as many people I pray for with some form of autoimmune disease as I did for those with cancer.  I was convicted however about how I prayed for each.  For those with cancer, my prayers were much more faith based, with the idea of healing a complete possibility.  For those with autoimmune however, my prayers consisted of phrases like, “help them managed their symptoms” or “may they be encouraged today to persevere”.  Interesting.  Why the difference?  Two passages of scripture have helped shed some light for me and while the issue is still a work in progress in my life, I would like to share with you what I have learned.   I believe all of us at some point have wanted to say to Jesus as Martha and Mary did “Lord, if you had been here…” John 11:21,32 and with a subject so complicated there are always questions to be answered.  For me personally, I believe unanswered prayer develops our faith, the process proves our faith genuine and ultimately display’s not only God’s glory but His presence in our lives.

          Martha’s theology of faith is demonstrated so clearly to me in John 11:22.  When Jesus arrives notice what she says, if you’ll pardon my paraphrase, “Jesus you do your thing, because I know God will do what you say”.  Then a dialogue ensues between the two where I think Jesus is probing what Martha really believes which culminates in her incredible statement of faith “I believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God, who was to come into the world.” John 11:27

     As Martha demonstrated her faith, the same is true of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego in Daniel 3:16-18 where the King wants to throw those three into the burning furnace for not bowing to the gods he had set up.  They say, “… the God we serve is able to save us from it (the furnace)…but even if he does not, we want you to know, we will not serve your gods…” I wonder if this is the place God desires for us all to arrive at, complete faith in the outcome He has planned.  Answered prayer or unanswered prayer, will we trust in His plan and profess absolute belief that He is God.

     “Who is your Lazarus?”  We all have a Lazarus, someone with cancer, autoimmune or maybe it is you.  Martha and Mary sent word to Jesus saying, “Lord, the one you love is sick.”  Jesus response is very telling; “This sickness…is for God’s glory so that God’s Son may be glorified through it”.  (John 11:4)  Interesting to note that after the sisters sent their request the situation actually got worse, Lazarus died.  When we observe Jesus’ attitude toward the situation we see two things, awareness from John 11:14-15 and he was deeply moved vs. 33-35.  God is never surprised or caught off guard as to our circumstances.  The reality is He knows and it grieves Him deeply. 

     As the dialogue between Jesus and Martha continues, Jesus says, “Take away the stone”.  Martha responds with a bit of resistance, reminding Jesus of the bad odor, after all, Lazarus has been dead four days.  Jesus reminds her, “Did I not tell you that if you believed, you would see the glory of God?” (John 11:40)  The result is Lazarus is brought back from the dead, so the people around them could believe that God had indeed sent Jesus.  

     So the question for us is, “What is our stone?”  Although Martha had demonstrated great faith previously in the passage, there was still some resistance.  What thing is God trying to remove from our lives in order to come to a deeper level of faith?  However, we have to be careful here, because this is not a cause and effect type of thing.  For example, If I find the stone in my life and once it is removed God will heal me or my loved one will be healed.  This is just clearly meant to cause some true introspection about my life and my walk of faith. 

     As I have processed through this subject of unanswered prayer, I was really hoping without realizing it to find that formula for my friend and for those who have life threatening illnesses.  Some will say, you just need more faith, more works, more something.  The conclusion I have come to is this, it is not about the outcome, it is about the day-to-day journey God has each of us on.  Easy to say for a person who at the time has neither of these illnesses, who isn’t desperately crying out to God who seemingly doesn’t hear or care. 

     What if we were to change our lenses though and search for God, could we see Him strengthening our faith?  If we searched could we not testify to the glory of God displayed in our lives and evidence of His ever-abiding presence in situations, which are at times unbearable? 

     The answer to Martha and Mary’s statement, “Lord if only you had been here…” is, Jesus was, He is and He will continue to be.  His presence is an assurance of our faith.