Who do you turn to when you need help? Who is your go to person when you don’t feel well? Who is the person you trust when you need wise advice? Is there someone among your family or friends who is that special person?
We all need someone we can turn to when sickness or trouble or major decisions confront us. For some, it may their mother or father. For others, it may be a close friend or a mentor. The person we turn to may differ based on the situation.
We can always turn to God. In fact, any time we are faced with a difficult situation, a health issue, need guidance for a decision, or simply feel a little out of place, we should always turn to God first. Why? God knows all situations. He knows what is happening, even what will happen before it happens. He wants us to turn to Him.
We also need to trust that God will provide what we need. Now, He may not always provide it the moment we ask. There will be times when He allow us to wait. There will be times when He wants us to experience adversity in order to learn to trust Him more.
Take a look at today’s passage. Lazarus is sick. In fact, he is deathly sick and dies before Jesus goes to him. Jesus purposely waits a few days. He doesn’t go to Bethany until Lazarus has been in the tomb for four days. He then calls out to Lazarus and raises him from the dead.
Jesus returns to Bethany a few days before He faces crucifixion. When He does, Mary douses Him with expensive perfume and wipes His feet with her hair. An act of worship most of us would not perform. But it shows how much Mary trusts Him and that she recognizes Him for who He truly is. How did her recognition come about? She witnessed Him raising her brother from the dead. She experienced pain and sorrow followed by pure joy because of Jesus’ actions.
It is likely we will not have an experience quite like Mary had with Jesus. However, when we trust Him, make Him the first one we turn to, we will experience Him and grow to trust Him more. It will become natural, automatic to turn to Him at all times.
I pray we all experience God working in our lives. I pray we recognize Him working on our behalf. I pray each one of us grow our faith, learning to trust Him more and more each day. Turn to God in all situations. Trust God to deliver for you. Recognize God intervening. Grow in your faith through experience.
John 11:1-3 Now a man named Lazarus was sick. He was from Bethany, the village of Mary and her sister Martha. (This Mary, whose brother Lazarus now lay sick, was the same one who poured perfume on the Lord and wiped his feet with her hair.) So the sisters sent word to Jesus, “Lord, the one you love is sick.”
Marty Pressey 