It is Never Too Late for Help!

Hello friend!

This past Sunday we celebrated the Resurrection of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. The resurrection should remind us that God holds the power to help us in all of our life situations.

In Psalm 121:1, David wrote, "I will lift up my eyes unto the hills from whence comes my help? My help comes from the Lord who made heaven and earth." If God is the One who holds the power to help us, we need to look to Him no matter what we may be going through at the moment.

I want you to know "It's Never Too Late for Help." Sometimes we feel overwhelmed by life's difficulties. In those critical moments we may think it's too late to get the help we need. Today we will look at the attitudes and responses of 2 women in John 11. Martha and Mary could have both given up and said it is too late for help. Their brother Lazarus had died. Isn't it amazing how we can serve the Lord and still experience crisis in our lives?

People don't know how to respond to crisis because they see it as THE END. We are quick to give up and we quit too soon when things go wrong in our lives. We must remember that Jesus overpowered death, the grave, and the tomb on the day of His resurrection. To Martha and Mary, it seemed as though it was over. Their brother Lazarus was dead. Jesus arrived to let them know that "It is Never Too Late for Help."

Your pastor and life coach,

Randy Morrison

Remember: Spiritual Success begins on Sunday Morning!

The Bible says that Jesus loved Lazarus. This raises a question in many of us. If God loves us, why do bad things happen to us in life? "If you love me, God, why did You allow this to happen?" When things don't go our way, we can pick up negative attitudes and even get mad at God because we feel that He let us down. We must remember we are living in a fallen world where there is conflict between good and evil. We need to believe God's promises no matter how discouraging our circumstances might appear. There is one thing we as Christians must settle in our mind: God is the Master of every situation we face. He is the I AM that can restore the brokenness in our lives.

His love is unconditional
His love is sacrificial
His love is redemptive

God lives outside our timetable and many times it can be a challenge to our faith if we don't understand His workings. Jesus' delay was on purpose to test Martha's and Mary's faith in his power to do what seemed impossible at the time.

God not only exposes us to information, but sometimes He intentionally withholds information from us to see if we will still trust Him.

When we get desperate, it opens the door to frustration when there is not an immediate response. When Jesus arrived, Lazarus had already died along with Martha's hope and expectation. Martha and Mary represent two different attitudes that surface when it seems like it is too late for help.

When things die in our lives, we are often left in a painful state of powerlessness, hopelessness, worthlessness, and uselessness.

Martha revealed her attitude toward Jesus when she said to Him, "If you had been here, my brother would not have died." She was accusing Him of being responsible for her crisis. How many times do we blame God and others when things die in our lives? Martha became resentful, sarcastic, and judgmental.

WE HAVE TO UNDERSTAND...God's purpose for our lives often may lead us down paths that we may think are not in our best interest.

Martha did not understand God's purpose so she responded to the death of her brother from a state of uncontrollable emotional disappointment. Mary responded with a worshipful attitude that caused her to control her grieving emotions and trust that Jesus could help, even though things seemed hopeless at that moment.

REMEMBER: The greatest weapon the enemy plants in our minds is: DISAPPOINTMENT.

The hope Jesus promised Martha did not seem to help her until she was willing to manage her emotions and believe what He said.

Crisis has a way of squeezing out of us what we believe. Martha needed an adjustment in her attitude to turn from bitterness to hopefulness in the One who had the power to bring back that which was dead.

We can always be hopeful when we put our trust

in what we believe God can do in our lives.

Mary came to Jesus and fell at his feet. She came to worship Him. She said the same thing that Martha said, but with a different attitude. She worshiped God through her pain. Our attitude can seal us in the tomb of our lives, when we are resentful toward God for not doing things the way we wanted them to be done. Worship did something inside of Mary that caused her to look at the tomb of Lazarus as a womb for the rebirth of her brother.

Worship can cause us to experience the rebirth of hopefulness. When we obey instructions from the Lord, we'll have an advantage over what seems hopeless as a result of divine intervention.

Worship can change the atmosphere of our difficulty so we can get the help we need, if we are not ashamed to do something out of the ordinary.

Our help is already in motion. We just need to engage ourselves

in the process by being thankful for Jesus in our lives.

DOWNLOAD NOW THE STWCI FOR YOUR SMARTPHONE

CONNECT, SHARE, GIVE AND DISCOVER MORE...

515 Jersey Ave. So. - Golden Valley, MN 55426 Tel: 763-542-1900