For Those Loved Ones Caught Up In Sin and Disbelief

So, I’m doing my daily devo and run across this passage from the Gospel of John.

Joh 11:5 Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus.

 6 So, when He heard that he was sick, He stayed two more days in the place where He was.

 7 Then after this He said to the disciples, "Let us go to Judea again."

Doesn’t this seem strange to you? It sounds like Jesus demonstrated His love for the three by delaying His coming to their rescue! Strange way to express love wouldn’t you say?

But then I began to think about my own conversion to Christ. Events that led up to it were not very pretty as the effects of sin ravaged my personal life. Surely if Jesus really loved me, He would’ve come to my rescue, and the rescue of my family sooner than later right?

Evidently not.

Sin had to run it’s course.

In the case of Lazarus it had to run all the way to his death, (the ultimate end of sin) In my case, I had to be brought to a place where I finally was teachable and reachable with the love of Christ. I don’t like revisiting that part of my life and I’m sure Lazarus didn’t like recounting stumbling out of the grave all wrapped up like a mummy either.

But the ultimate lesson learned for both of us was priceless. Jesus summed it up in Jn 11:25, “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me, though he may die, he shall live. And whoever lives and believes in Me shall never die.”

I say these things as a way to encourage those who have loved ones caught up in sin and disbelief. Sometimes sin has to run its course in order for God to breakthrough. Keep praying! Keep living your faith! Keep loving! Take heart from the words of the Psalmist found in  Ps 107:10-16,

“Those who sat in darkness and in the shadow of death, Bound in affliction and irons-

 11 Because they rebelled against the words of God, And despised the counsel of the Most High,

 12 Therefore He brought down their heart with labor; They fell down, and there was none to help.

 13 Then they cried out to the LORD in their trouble, And He saved them out of their distresses.

 14 He brought them out of darkness and the shadow of death, And broke their chains in pieces.

 15 Oh, that men would give thanks to the LORD for His goodness, And for His wonderful works to the children of men!

 16 For He has broken the gates of bronze, And cut the bars of iron in two.

Pray for those imprisoned by sin and disbelief, that sin and all of its associated woes, may run it’s course and consequently cause them to cry out to God  in their trouble, that He would save them from their distresses.