John 11:40-43
40 Then Jesus said, “Did I not tell you that if you believe, you will see the glory of God?”
41 So they took away the stone. Then Jesus looked up and said, “Father, I thank you that you have heard me. 42 I knew that you always hear me, but I said this for the benefit of the people standing here, that they may believe that you sent me.”
43 When he had said this, Jesus called in a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out!” 44 The dead man came out, his hands and feet wrapped with strips of linen, and a cloth around his face.
Jesus said to them, “Take off the grave clothes and let him go.”
God keeps bringing me back over and over again in the last few weeks to a point in my life where I had to really let go and surrender it all. It was in that hospital room watching a man fight for his life from a drug oversdose and the need for me to be released from a twenty year span of wandering in the desert. Today the sermon at church was centered on never quitting, funny story that was a blog from a few days ago for me. It also was focused on looking over and reflecting on what God has already pulled you from. Sure made me cry as I thought about sitting in that hospital room trying to figure out how I had gotten to where I was.
After the sermon, someone came up and spoke about the scripture verse quoted above. She explain how Lazarus needed to be unwrapped before he could be free. He was alive but unable to move because he was still bound up in his grave clothes. He needed people to unwrap him and set him free from the past. Isn’t that how we should be as a church body? Should we not help bring people back to llife by showing them Jesus and then begin the process of stripping them of all the guilt and pressures of the past?
Sometimes we come to God so wrapped up in guilt and shame that we don’t even know where to begin, this is where the body of Christ should begin to minister. We should be willing to step out of our comfort zones and use the power within us to heal the brokeness these people have. I know for me, I would not be standing where I am today without the help and direction of those who loved me right where I was enough to begin to “unwrap” me, releasing me to be alive and free. I was scared, confused and wanting to be active again. I needed people to begin to show me who I was. I needed others to show me God so that I could find peace once more.
Are you ready to be unwrapped? If you have not come to know Jesus yet, are you ready? If you have begun a relationship with Jesus, are you being held back by your grave clothes? Do you need someone to begin the unwrapping process for you and set you free? I encourage each of you to look deep into yourself and ask God for your freedom. I know He will show up for He hears the cries of His children and is quick to send help.
Step Upon the Golden Road with Me! 