Daily Manna 8 May
KEY VERSE: “Jesus said, Take ye away the stone. Martha, the sister of him that was dead, saith unto him, Lord, by this time he stinketh: for he hath been dead four days.” John 11:39
READ: John 11:33-40 (KJV)
33 Therefore, when Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who came with her weeping, He groaned in the spirit and was troubled. 34 And He said, “Where have you laid him?”
They said to Him, “Lord, come and see.”
35 Jesus wept. 36 Then the Jews said, “See how He loved him!”
37 And some of them said, “Could not this Man, who opened the eyes of the blind, also have kept this man from dying?”
38 Then Jesus, again groaning in Himself, came to the tomb. It was a cave, and a stone lay against it. 39 Jesus said, “Take away the stone.”
Martha, the sister of him who was dead, said to Him, “Lord, by this time there is a stench, for he has been dead four days.”
40 Jesus said to her, “Did I not say to you that if you would believe you would see the glory of God?”
Read yesterday’s Daily Manna here
Two men were imprisoned in the same facility; but there was a big chasm in their attitudes to their predicament. One held the bars that stood between him and freedom. Distraught, he focused only on the cold iron in his grip. He saw nothing else. The other, also firmly grabbing the bars, looked away from the steel rods. He saw beyond the prison premises. He looked at stars above his lowly confinement. He set his sights on brighter days to come when he would regain liberty and go about his normal duties again.
That was also the problem with Martha in her encounter with our Lord Jesus Christ at the graveyard of Lazarus. She saw differently from the Lord, even when they were in the same place. Our Lord Jesus looked for a risen Lazarus that would bring glory to heaven. He took His time to demonstrate His resurrection power. But Martha could not see farther than the stone that covered her brother’s grave. She saw a body that “stinketh…[that] hath been dead four days”.
Man will always miss the blessings and miracles of the Lord if he refuses to walk in His strides. When he allows besetting sins of doubt, worldliness, greed and belief in tradition to rule him, he will hardly catch a view of God’s splendid plan for him. These represent the ‘stone’ blocking the rise of his dormant and dead testimonies. They must be removed if he hopes to experience God’s glory in his life and family.
As we step out today, we need to identify the ‘stone’ we woke up with which would not let us see the way our Lord sees. God’s rich blessings await us as we align obediently with His vision. He does not see the death of our dreams, but their realisation.
THOUGHT FOR THE DAY: To reclaim our losses, we need to see as Jesus sees.
BIBLE IN ONE YEAR: Judges 18-21
Thank you for studying today’s Daily Manna – Do You See Like Christ? – by Pastor Enoch A.
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Daily Manna 8 May 2021