He Must Do More

 

"But some of them said, 'Could not He who opened the eyes of the blind man have kept this man from dying?'"

John 11:37

 

    Could not Christ have saved Lazarus from dying?  Of course He could.  But Jesus must do the absolutely best thing, not merely the second best.  If it were best for Lazarus to die, then Christ would not prevent his death.  Behind how many of our unanswered prayers lies this divine reality!

 

    Oh, how we make the Lord a method, a habit, a machine, instead of a Great, Dear, Live, Loving Being, all afire with affection and radiant with Light!  How we have taken the great word faith and made it to mean the holding of set dogmas, when it really means the wide openness of a whole life dedicated to God!  How we have limited and stereotyped the range and possibility of a miracle until only what God has done we think God can do, and so do not stand ready for the new light, mercy and salvation which the Infinite Love and Power of God has to give!

 

    Let us open our hearts today.  God cannot merely do for us, over and over again, what He has done in the past; He must do more.

 

    When Lazarus at last sat with them all at Bethany and the house was solemn (in its rejoicing) with his resurrection life, how good then it seemed that Christ had not kept this man from dying!  The day will come when we, too, will be eternally thankful that our Lord refused merely to repeat the old familiar mercies of the past, but forced us through everything to let Him do for us larger and larger mercies that our souls required.  When He so tries to bless us with His largest blessing, may He also make us ready to submit to be blessed!

 

           Phillips Brooks

 

“Now to Him Who, by the action of His power that is at work within us, is able to carry out His purpose and do superabundantly, far over and above all that we dare ask or think - infinitely beyond our highest prayers, desires, thoughts, hopes or dreams - to Him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen…”  

                                                            Ephesians 3:20, 21 (Amplified)