When Mary reached the place where Jesus was and saw him, she fell at his feet and said, "Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died." When Jesus saw her weeping, he was deeply moved in spirit and troubled. "Where have you laid him?" he asked. (John 11:32-34 NIV)
There are times in our lives that we will come face to face with pain. I’m talking about real pain, the kind of pain that you don’t ever think you will recover from, pain that grips your heart and confuses your mind, the kind of pain that makes you question everyone and everything, including yourself and God.
Pain comes in many forms; it doesn’t favor any one person, gender, race, or social group. The truth is; if there is air in your lungs and you are on this earth, you will be confronted by pain. Some of us have known more pain than others, some of us have more to overcome than others but in the end, does it really matter? Pain is pain and when it grips your very soul, it can be the most paralyzing, overwhelming, hopeless feeling one could experience.
I may not know your name, I may not know exactly what you’ve been through, but the Father told me to tell you—“It’s Not Over!”
You might be in the place where the odds are against you, the battle may have worn you out, the enemy might be doing a victory dance, but—“It’s Not Over!”
Beautiful One, the above verse gives us more than we realize about the heart of God and about pain.
The Bible says that when Mary reached the place where Jesus was she fell down and cried out “Lord if you had been here, my brother would not have died.” Here is what she was really saying; “Lord, where were you, why didn’t you do anything, how come you let this happen?” Mary was immobilized by her pain and her disappointment was obvious; where was God when she needed him?
Have you ever asked God that question? Have you ever been in so much pain, hoping the Lord would show up and save the day only to be disappointed and the outcome you feared came upon you?
Beautiful One, no one likes to admit their doubt and disappointment with the Lord, no one, but in order to grasp the full measure of God, we need to be real for a moment, pain and confusing times do come as we walk with the Lord, they just do, for His ways are not our ways and every way to a mans heart seems right, but it is the purpose of the Lord that prevails.
The conflict is part of the plan, God is not upset that we question Him, God understands our struggles, and through the pain and tears, He always shows us things we knew not of and He always comes through, in the end, when we look back, we find, He was right there.
Pain blinds the eye and pierces the heart and if we are not honest with where we’re at, we will unknowingly view life through the lens of pain and it will effect what we believe God to be.
When Jesus saw Mary’s tears, when He heard her subtle disbelief and disappointment, He didn’t scold her, or walk away from her, He became deeply troubled in His own Spirit and He asked her “where have you laid him?”
What Christ was saying to her was; “ take me to the place you stopped believing in ME”, Christ told Mary then and is beckoning YOU now, " show ME the tomb you buried your hopes and dreams of something better in, take me to that place in your life that destroyed you and you silently gave up, take me to the place that you accepted as dead and allow me to breathe life into it again.”
Beautiful One, tough times never last BUT TOUGH PEOPLE DO!
God sees your tears and hears your cry, when YOU hurt, HE hurts, HE weeps when YOU weep, but HE remembers what we tend to forget, and that is; the situation you are facing, the pain you are in will not end up for your destruction, BUT for the Glory of God.
Beautiful One, Mary was just like us, she was a believer, she loved the Lord but adversity and pain came knocking on her door and when she cried out for help and when it didn’t come the way she wanted it to, her pain magnified, she questioned everything she knew and she voiced it to her Lord, she was real, she didn’t hide and act like she was ok, she questioned God and God met her right where she was at, in her pain and HE did exceedingly, abundantly, more than she had asked, thought or imagined He would do.
At the end of her story—Christ came through!
And He will do the same for YOU …
Pain is hard, it hurts, it wounds us in ways we never imagined possible but in the end, God will work it together for our good and for His Glory.
Beautiful One Hold On, Just Believe because He is never early, He is never late, HE is always right on time ...
And ... It’s Not Over! —Shannon Heiden
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