On the weekend, I had the pleasure of preaching on the Raising of Lazarus, from John 11. Whilst it is a passage that has some surprising things take place, and shows a great miracle of Jesus taking place, it is also a passage that really highlights the fact that often in life God has a greater plan.

When you read John 11, you quickly see that Lazarus is someone whom Jesus loves - he is a friend of Jesus, but when news comes to Jesus, from Martha and Mary, that Lazarus is sick, Jesus decides to stay where he is for 2 more days. In fact, when he finally arrives at Bethany, we see that Lazarus had been in the tomb for 4 days - Lazarus is clearly dead.

Now I am not going to get into everything that I spoke about on Sunday, as you can listen to the sermon online, but what I do want to talk about is that in amidst this passage, it is clear that even though Jesus was clearly grieved, there was a greater plan in store.

Quite often in our lives, when we pray to God for him to work, we often expect him, or even tell him, to work in a certain way. But I have found that often God will work in ways that I wasn't expecting; ways I couldn't have imagined.

I have found that through some of the hardest times in my life, that God doesn't immediately work to resolve my problem, but instead first works to change me and to grow me through it. God has shown me that he isn't simply a problem solver, but he is a people grower. God seeks to grow us more into his likeness. He seeks to make us into the people that he wants us to be, and often the plans that we think up for our lives, or the things we ask God to do, are ways out of our current situation, rather than this bigger plan (I'm not discounting the fact that God does work to bring us out of difficult situations, so please don't understand me here). As John 11, and the whole Passion Narrative (Christ's death on the cross, and the later resurrection) shows, whilst God's plans can be difficult, and whilst we may see easier ways out of our trouble, God is always at work bringing about what is best for us - bringing out his greater plan.

What is portrayed in the Bible is that we have a God who is powerful, but also a God whom greatly loves us and cares for us. What we are called to do is to trust Him, and as we learn to trust Him, we slowly allow Him to work HIS plans into our lives, rather than the selfish, narrow-minded plans that we often think up. Trusting in God is not always easy, but my life so far has shown God to always be faithful, always loving, and all-powerful.

Please share any stories you have of God's faithfulness in your life, and your struggles with trusting him, in a comment below...

Disclaimer: The blog entries on this website represent the views of the author, and do not necessarily represent the views of this Church.

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