When God Doesn't Move

**Sit quietly, eyes closed and in silence for one minute before reading.**

    At times we wonder why God will not move. He will not take action. If He can do (fill in the blank) then why doesn’t He do (fill in the blank)? Why does God hold back? At the death of Lazarus people were asking why Jesus didn’t keep Lazarus from dying if He could open the eyes of a blind man. Two core questions are really being asked by these people and by us. Is God good and is God sovereign? In other words, is He both loving and great? There is a struggle to reconcile if God is BOTH good and great. There are times when God is obviously great but He doesn’t seem like a very loving God. There are other times when God is obviously good but doesn’t seem to have much power.

    The truth is that God is both, all the time. He cannot be good without being great and He cannot be great without being good. God is always loving even though the outcome is not what we wanted it to be. God is still sovereign even though the outcome is not what we wanted it to be.

    My struggle to reconcile these truths and my experience varies depending on what I am going through. Do you struggle with one or the other? Maybe you struggle with both? Talk to God, let Him know how you’re struggling and allow Him to meet you in your struggle.

Have more than two minutes: Read the story mentioned about in the Gospeh of John 11:28-37.

**Sit again in silence for as long as is available to you.**

Jesus Wept

    “Jesus wept”. The shortest verse in the Bible contains great power. It contains power that meets us in our grief, in our sorrow and with the pain of death. In this verse God meets us in our humanity and reminds us that we have a God that identifies with us. He is not unfamiliar with grief.
    Jesus was planning to resurrect Lazarus from the dead yet he stopped to grieve with Mary and with the people. Resurrection was on his mind yet he allowed time for grief and met people in their grief. He legitimized the reality and need for tears.
    I cannot imagine the horror, the sorrow, the pain, the grief, the “I cannot breathe” feeling that the families and community of Newtown, CT. I know that God can redeem the greatest of sorrows, the greatest of evils and can re-create anything. I would like to caution against moving too quickly to redemption and not allowing grief to have its place and its time. Let us grieve with one another and for one another. Let us grieve with God knowing that Jesus weeps as well.

    I realize the story about Lazarus doesn’t end there. The story ends with some of the people saying, “Could not he who opened the eyes of the blind man also have kept this man from dying?” The answer is yes, Jesus could have, yet he did not. If we consider the question they are asking, they are really asking the questions of why he did not stop Lazarus from dying. I don’t know. I don’t know what he didn’t keep those at Sandy Hook from dying. I don’t know.

  For the bible story mentioned above see John 11:17-37.