John 11:1-46 tells a story of Martha as she spoke with Jesus about the death of her brother Lazarus, when Lazarus was sick Mary had sent for Jesus to come and heal him but Jesus stayed yet another four days where he was before leaving to go to Lazarus and by the time that Jesus got there Lazarus was already dead for four days and in the tomb.
At this moment Jesus had come to raise Lazarus from the dead but the Jewish custom was that once the tomb was sealed no one could open it but the family and that was only to dress and oil the body, and now Jesus needs Martha to give the word for her brother's tomb to be opened but he found there LITTLE FAITH, when Martha said to him:
"Jesus, Lord, if thou hadst been here, my brother had not died."
This limited faith has cause many to loss their way, standing on the Lord is the greatest power there can be in the life of a believer, but Martha needed to have more faith if Jesus was going to be able to help her, if the word is not given the tomb will stay sealed and Lazarus will stay dead, so Jesus make a very important statement to Martha:
"Thy brother shall rise again."
All the hope of Jesus rested on Martha understanding this statement for all that it meant, but Martha didn't understand, and so the tomb remained sealed, Jesus waited and Martha said to him:
"I know that he shall rise again at the last day."
Although this statement Martha made to Jesus was right, this is not what Jesus wanted her to understand, he wanted her to know where the power came from in the last day to raise anyone from the dead, and Martha didn't get it so Jesus said to her:
"I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead yet shall he live:"
Now that Martha's faith has been tried Jesus wanted to know if she would show him where they have laid Lazarus and Martha and Mary who was now with them says:
"Lord, come and see."
Once Jesus gets to the tomb and tells them to remove the stone he finds that Martha's faith still isn't where it should be and unless he can get her to believe the stone stays, so Jesus says to her:
"Said I not unto thee, that if thou wouldest believe, thou shouldest see the glory of God?"
Martha believed that Jesus could heal the sick but never gave it a thought as to him raising the dead, this limited faith is found still in Christians today, they believe God for the small or little natural things but to believe God for something that is outside the realm of their thinking seem a little crazy, or unreal so they never no what faith really is, Martha learned by allowing Jesus to open the tomb and after Jesus had prayed he said:
"Lazarus, come forth."
Now we can see that the tomb now has someone, it has Lazarus to come forth because Martha extended her faith enough to have the tomb opened and that brought Lazarus where before there was no Lazarus, our faith has kept so much bound up in our lives that we can't even see anymore that if we would as Martha, just believe, nothing is to hard for God.
So we have to learn to do as Jesus said of Lazarus after he called him, Jesus said to them around about him:
"Loose him, and let him go."
When we have the faith which God wants us to have we can say to many things in our life, loose him, and let him go, you can say to bills, loose him, to worries, loose him, to marriage problems, loose him, problems on the job, loose him, we need only have faith and believe God even when it seems crazy to do so, believe anyway and keep standing and God will say to you, "COME FORTH," as he did with Lazarus.
Our scripture heading shows that there are many other lessons on LITTLE FAITH, throughout the Bible but this story was just one, read (Matt. 14:28-33) also (Matt. 8:23-27) to see how Jesus handle little faith in other people and problems.
All it takes is faith, if we keep God in a little box, we can't complain when God acts like a person in a little box, so take God out the box and make that step, believe in something that no man can help you with, stand on the promises of God, that if you believe then you shall see the glory of God.
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