This week I was reading from the book of John and was struck by verse 40 in chapter 11 which says,
“Jesus said to her (Martha), “Did I not say to you that if you would believe you would see the glory of God?” Brackets mine
Just to give you a brief background of what had happened.
A few days before, Lazarus, brother to Martha and Mary had fallen sick and the sisters had sent for Jesus.
Jesus delayed in coming and Lazarus died.
When Jesus finally shows up, Lazarus has been in the tomb four days.
Jesus spoke these words to Martha after she tried to reason him out of opening the tomb.
I read these verses and couldn’t help thinking about my shallow faith when I have difficulties in my marriage.
You see dear wives without a personal supernatural faith, we are not going to experience the supernatural in our lives and marriages.
Martha had a specific word from the Lord concerning her loss – that her brother would rise again.
Nonetheless His word required her to forget all that she was seeing, all that she was thinking, feeling and experiencing.
Where is your faith?
Are you at that place where God’s promise is clashing with your reality? Everything you use to measure and gauge God’s word, well, none of it is working?
We are good with crutches, we wives. We over-rely, put our hopes in our environment.
Actually sometimes the reason we feel strong is because of our associations – our praying husband, good friends, ordinary circumstances.
And when faced with difficulties, we cling to our “anointed associations”…with little personal faith of our own, without really clinging to the word from the Master concerning our situations.
And wanting to grow us up, God comes along and begins to kick out our props. He strips us of our “anointed associations” – so that we can learn how to be anointed all by ourselves.
Here’s a question for you (and me) today, how is our personal walk with the Lord?
Are we close enough to hear Him speak to us concerning that situation in our lives and marriage?
Can we sense Him urging us to a higher level of faith and engagement for our marriage?
No ordinary place
Martha was in no ordinary place. And maybe you are in no ordinary place today.
Here’s something I am learning – some of the situations we go through in this life will not be solved with ordinary faith.
However, that strong extraordinary faith we need for these difficult situations does not come from pumping ourselves up or being positive or through any other human effort.
This kind of supernatural faith comes from hanging out with Jesus even in our pain and distress and hearing Him speak words that bring life and strength to our souls.
It comes from hanging on to everything He says and refusing to go by the ordinary.
But He does the heavy lifting
One thing I love about this story is how Jesus, inspite of Martha’s hesitation and ignorance of God’s resurrection power (to raise her brother up at that moment), went on to perform a big miracle for the family.
Martha’s weak faith- seen through her hesitation to open that tomb – notwithstanding Christ still raises Lazarus from the dead.
Hallelujah, there’s hope for every one of us!
Sure we have a part to play, we must put on our big girls pants but guess what, Christ does the heavy lifting!
He works in us and moves us towards this great faith and then performs beyond our thinking and expectations!
I am so glad God doesn’t give me what I deserve!
God has purposed to do great things in our lives and marriages this year. But will we see it?
Will we allow Him to come walking into our situations and life? Or will stand infront of our tombs and refuse to open them up to His power and scrutiny?
In an earlier verse, Christ declared “I am the resurrection and the life..”
Do you believe He is the resurrection and the life to your life and marriage? Will you allow His life to flow into yours?
Greater faith
You know, I found myself praying for greater faith…greater than Martha’s – I want to be in tune with God, so in tune that I believe from the get go, I don’t want to hesitate and fret over my ruins and desolations.
But for a second I felt ridiculous praying like that.
I mean here’s a woman who was Jesus’ friend, who saw Him in flesh – what makes me think I could do better than her given the same circumstances?.
But the more I thought about it, the more I realized that my desire to have more faith was not ridiculous at all.
Because I was sitting at a very difference place from where Martha sat. She was a character in that story, she had not experienced the end of it.
But I have!
I can read and see how the story ended and therefore I can believe all the more because I have a better view!
Whatever situation you are in in your marriage or life today, I pray you hear the voice of the Lord asking you to believe so that you would see the glory of God.
I pray you choose to walk the not-so-ordinary path with God, to choose to believe God like you’ve never done before.
I pray that you’ll let go of pride and worry and fears which keeps you mired in marriage blues, and you’ll allow Him to walk into the deepest parts of your heart and marriage and bring life and healing where you need it.
Hi Ngina
Very powerful message with wisdom. I experienced a difficult time where I stop seeking Gods help and I loose faith in God. I even went to the extent asking Why God allows me to encounter such situation. But Amen, this message is really inspiring and encouraging, giving an insight of how Faith works in ones life. The illustration about Martha presented in this message is truly an example of how to build my faith. Thankyou Ngina, you have given me the direction of light to my path on how to holdfast to my faith no matter what the storm brings.
I’ve heard people say to never evaluate God in the midst of your crisis but instead allow past crises to remind you that God is faithful. It’s a challenge sometimes but it’s truth.
Ngina, as I was reading your post, I was thinking of Joseph and Abraham and Moses – if they had relied on their circumstances, rather than God’s promises, life would have looked pretty bleak. Thanks for the good words of encouragement to rely on God!
I could really relate to your words here today, Ngina. I’m not facing a trial in my marriage but in another area of my life and it feels as if I’m standing outside that tomb, wondering when is Jesus going to show up? ha! It sounds so silly when I write down what I’m feeling! But the reality is, He didn’t need to get there before Lazarus died. In fact, that would have bypassed the miracle of resurrection and who wants to miss that?! I love your thoughts today, my friend. They have encouraged me!
Amen! I have to keep feeding in God’s word so that the word and faith I need for my marriage and indeed my life will never be lacking in me.
Thanks for this great inspiration Ngina, do have a super blessed day!
Love
Amen Ugochi! Thank you for sharing!
Thanks for this post Ngina! It reminded me that one of my tasks as a husband is to make sure that I am nourishing the faith in my wife. I can’t do that unless I am first nourishing my own faith. I like how you ask for more faith than Martha. That’s bold and I think it’s exactly the kind of request that we come to God with as our faith grows.
He keeps reminding me that nothing is too big for Him! I what you’ve said about nourishing your own faith in order to nourish you wife’s. So true, thank you.
What an encouraging and powerful post! God has been knocking my props out from under me for awhile.
Recently I encountered a storm and my first response was to call someone for prayer. Then God spoke to me and asked me to go FIRST to Him in prayer. I can’t believe how I sometimes think someone elses prayers will be heard/answered more than mine will. My how I need my faith to grow…and God is helping it too!
Thank you for this wonderful post.
Powerful reminder TC, thank you for sharing that example. oh how we need to remember!
Ngina, your post fills me with encouragement. Our son and ex wife are trying to reconcile their marriage, they have been divorced two years. So many people have prayed for this relationship and now to see our son come out of the pig pen back to the Father is wonderful. Some of her family are taking a negative stand against our son…they are not happy just for the fact our son has come to the end of himself and turned to the Father who has been waiting with such love. Thank you for you words.
Oh Betty isn’t God so good? He answers prayer and reconciles what it seems lost. Praying for your son and his wife today.
Ngina, this message is critical and awesome. I know many blessings will flow from it because of the Biblical references. So many indications of how we should have faith yet, we still don’t. Thank you for such a powerful reminder.
Glad the post was insightful Lincoln, thank you for reading and sharing.
Amen, great insights Ngina.
Thanks Kimanzi
Your intelligence and wisdom is a gift, Ngina. You have a gift to teach and inspire. I don’t know if I’ve heard or read a better interpretation of that verse. Knowing the end of Martha’s story should give us more faith in ours. Our Father is not bound to the physical laws He created for us… Excellent Word!
Amen Floyd, glory to God, He is good, He knows how to give us the Word we need..and allow us the privilege of sharing it with others. I gain so much from your blog too, i thank God for all the wisdom He surrounds us with!
Amen Floyd, glory to God…I love how God knows gives us the word we need in season..and then gives the privilege of sharing it with others. I gain so much from your blog too, He surrounds with so much wisdom!
Wish I can tweet this, “I pray that we’ll let go of pride and worry and fears which keep us mired in marriage blues, and that instead we will allow Him to walk into the deepest parts of our hearts and marriage and bring life and healing where we need it.”
🙂 Glad you liked that part 🙂