Developing Faith

The house in Bethany was most likely filled with people following Lazarus's death. Friends and family flocked in to support the sisters in their grief, even from out of town. This means Martha once again had a houseful of company when Jesus finally arrived in Bethany. But when someone brought the news that Jesus was coming, it was Martha, not Mary, who ran to meet him. The guests, the duties, all the distractions-nothing mattered but seeing Jesus. She met him somewhere on the road into Bethany, and with all the anguished honesty of deep sorrow, Martha poured out her grief. "Lord," she cried, "if you had been here, my brother would not have died." Her response was natural and heartfelt. But then Martha added something I find remarkable, something that revealed just how much she had changed since the last time they'd met. "But I know," she continued, "that even now God will give you whatever you ask?. No longer do we see a woman trying to manipulate God. Instead of trying to rewrite the story of her brother's death-instead of putting a comma where there was a period or a period where there could be comma-Martha was placing the quill of their lives in Jesus' hands. How precious Martha's response must have sounded in Jesus' ears. I believe. In Martha's great declaration of faith and the miraculous events that followed it, we find the fourth lesson from the story of Lazarus:

God's plan is released when we believe and obey.

Faith and obedience go hand in hand. That's what Martha did. And as she did, faith arose to help her take the next step: to obey him when he spoke, even when what he told her to do seemed completely impractical. (From:Having a Mary Heart in a Martha World)