GOD IS NOT FINISHED WITH YOU YET

Based on the Message of Pastor Fred Puno

How many times have we thought that God is done with us? How many times have we judged our situations too early as hopeless cases because we could not wait long enough to see God come through for us?

While it is so easy for man to simply resign to these wrong thoughts in dark times, we can take encouragement from the Word of God as it is full of true stories of God proving Himself faithful and gracious in seemingly impossible circumstances, proving that He is not yet finished with us.

Abraham. God promised a son to Abraham at an age when he and Sarah were already too old to bear a child, making it physically impossible. Yet, Abraham and Sarah learned to grow in faith and patience until they saw God’s promise come to pass at the birth of Isaac.

Joseph. When Joseph was sold as a slave, he lost everything - his family, identity, and all his possessions. All his dreams seemed impossible to ever come true then. How easy it would have been to conclude that it was all over for him and that God had forgotten him. Yet, later on, God promoted Joseph from slavery to a high place of authority over all of Egypt. Because of the power entrusted to him, he wasn’t just able to save his own family but he was also able to provide for an entire nation in a time of famine.

Apostle Peter. When Jesus was arrested, Apostle Peter forsook Jesus and denied he knew Jesus three times. When he realized what he had done against the Lord, he must have felt like a complete failure. It would have been so easy to give up on believing Peter could still be used by God. And yet, before Peter’s denial, we must remember that Jesus told Peter, “But I have prayed for you, that your faith should not fail; and when you have returned to Me, strengthen your brethren” (Luke 22:32). True to His Word, Jesus restored Peter and he eventually became one of the strong pillars of the early Church.

Lazarus. In John 11, we read about the story of Lazarus and his sisters, Mary and Martha. When Lazarus got sick, his sisters called for Jesus to heal him but Jesus delayed in his coming and by the time He arrived, Lazarus was already dead. Mary and Martha must have thought it was too late and it was all over. Yet, when Jesus came, He was able to raise Lazarus from the dead! Jesus allowed the delay because His plan for Lazarus was not healing - it was to resurrect him which was far greater. When we encounter delays, this may mean that God is up to something greater than what we can ever imagine.

Why Do We Think God is Done with Us?

Like Martha and Mary, how many times have we looked into a situation and thought that it’s over? But the truth is, it’s not over until God says it’s over. God had the final say in Lazarus’s situation and the same is true for our lives as well. From Mary’s and Martha’s responses, we can learn the three reasons why we tend to think God is done with us:

We forget that God loves us very much. In John 11, it repeatedly mentions of Jesus’ love for Lazarus, Martha and Mary: “3 Therefore the sisters sent to Him, saying, “Lord, behold, he whom You love is sick.” 5 ...Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus. 36 ...Then the Jews said, “See how He loved him!” God’s love for Lazarus never changed - even in his sickness and death, Jesus loved him. This means that all that we are going through, including our trials, are arranged and allowed by God in His perfect love. The key is to fully realize how much God truly loves us.

We think we are alone. Because of the delay in Jesus’ coming, Martha and Mary thought God had left them - “Now Martha said to Jesus, “Lord, if You had been here, my brother would not have died.” (John 11:1). But what Martha did not know is that Jesus knew everything that was happening. We can take comfort in the truth that one of God’s names is “Emmanuel” which means “God with us.”

We fail to see who God truly is. When Jesus told Martha that Lazarus would rise again from the dead, she couldn’t believe that the miracle could happen right there and then - she thought it could only happen much later in the resurrection at the last day” (John 11:24). When we are faced with difficulties, may we not be overwhelmed by it. Instead, may we learn to look to our all-powerful God to whom nothing is impossible.

The Turning Point

When we put our hope and trust in God in the midst of our trials, the time will come when there will be a turning point - a time when God would finally intervene in our situation. 

In the story of Lazarus, Mary, and Martha, their turning point is found in John 11:32-33: Then, when Mary came where Jesus was, and saw Him, she fell down at His feet, saying to Him, “Lord, if You had been here, my brother would not have died.” Therefore, when Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who came with her weeping, He groaned in the spirit and was troubled.

Mary worshiped Jesus. Mary’s response was similar to Martha’s but the difference was what she did before she spoke a word to Jesus - she fell down at His feet. She worshiped God first, acknowledging who Jesus was.

Mary wept. Jesus moved when He saw Mary weep. When was the last time you wept? When we weep, we run out of words in prayer. We stop telling God what to do and we simply bring our requests to God in humility and desperation, asking Him to move on our behalf. When we weep, we touch the heart of our Heavenly Father and He is compelled to move.

Conclusion

All throughout the Bible, we read about how God can turn lives around, turning dead-end situations into new beginnings. Just like Apostle Peter, may we have the faith to know that God is not finished with us yet, despite our failures and troubles.

May we also learn from Mary and Martha to remember how much God truly loves us, to believe that He is always with us, and to see Him for how good and sovereign He really is.