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Trustworthiness of Believing

April 8th, 2025

John 11:12-22      

Have you ever thought or prayed, “Lord if you had . . . , then . . . ”? Maybe it was something like, “Lord, if you had answered my prayer and I had gotten that job, then I wouldn’t be so financially strapped.” Or, “Lord, if you had healed my spouse, then he/she wouldn’t have died of cancer.” Prayers like these reflect our honest feelings, but by themselves, they are spiritually shortsighted.

Lazarus got sick and died. When Jesus showed up, Lazarus had been dead for four days. When Lazarus’s sister Martha heard Jesus was coming, she went out to meet Him. She said to Jesus, “If you had been here, then, my brother would not have died.” She uses the “If you had . . . , then . . . .” Yet, there is also a statement of faith: “But I know . . . .” Martha was expressing real, raw emotions, but in the midst of her sorrow, there was an affirming, “Yet, I still believe.”

God is not afraid of our honesty. Our prayers should contain our real thoughts and feelings.

Even when we do not have all the answers, may our posture in prayer be, “But I know.”

Author: Mike Wonch