Prayer
Briefly prepare your heart in silence, and ask the Holy Spirit to awaken your sense of anticipation that God is about to speak to you through His Word. Then, before you read, I invite you to pray this simple prayer based on Psalm 47:2,
Lord Most High, You are awesome,
You are the great King over all the earth.
Speak Your word to me today,
And help me to obey. Amen.
Reading
What a glorious conversation.
‘Take away the stone,’
‘But, Lord, by this time there is a bad odour, for he has been there four days.’
‘Did I not tell you that if you believe, you will see the glory of God?’
And we all know what happened next!
For the purposes of this devotion, I’ll assume that you believe, as I do, that the Lord still communicates with us today. Most usually He does so through the words of the Bible, applied to our hearts by the Holy Spirit. Sometimes it is through thoughts or impressions that come to us by the Spirit’s gentle inner voice. At other times our fellow Christians may act as messengers of God and speak His Word into our lives.
Whenever and however the Lord may communicate His instructions to us, our response should always be to obey by faith. Certainly, as fallible human beings, our very first step is to “test” our understanding of that word against Biblical truth, principles and values. When we or others feel that God has spoken to us, but the “word” contradicts the Bible, we need to abandon it immediately. We should also seek the wise counsel of others regarding any big life decisions we feel led to by the Lord. After all, we are sometimes too close to a matter to listen objectively.
But, at times, even when we have become absolutely certain that the Lord has spoken, we may feel as flabbergasted by His instructions as Martha did. They may seem to be completely couterintuitive, or even downright ridiculous at times. But, once we have come to the firm conviction that we have indeed heard from the Lord, faithful disciples will step out in obedience.
I guess we could say that just before Jesus called Lazarus out of a literal tomb, He called Martha out of a tomb of inaction. Is there some way the Lord has been guiding you out of inaction? Have you been ignoring or resisting? Will you decide today to walk out of that tomb into the light of faith-filled obedience to the Lord’s guidance? For if you do, Jesus says, “You will see the glory of God”.
I pray you will. Please pray for me too.
Contemplation
Please take time to ponder what Jesus has commanded us. Turn this declaration over and over in your mind. Keep it in mind throughout the day and live in step with Your King, Jesus.
As a disciple of Jesus Christ:
- I will listen, believe and obey!
Holy Spirit, please help me to hear the voice of the Lord, and when I hear, to obey. Amen.
Leave a Reply