The past month has been really hard.  As a church family we prayed, fasted, and warred for the life of our Senior Pastor.  We were certain he would come through and share his testimony of the goodness of God in the land of the living.  But our prayers were not answered in the way that we had hoped.  Our Pastor transitioned into eternity and we were left with lots of questions and so many tears.

This past Sunday, Ryan Leak shared an encouraging message to our church on prayer.  As you can imagine, it was a difficult message to deliver to a church that had just spent the past few weeks praying for the healing of our beloved Pastor.  

Ryan shared from Luke 7.  In this text, John the Baptist’s disciples had come to deliver a message to Jesus on John’s behalf because John had been imprisoned and would soon be executed.

John’s disciples sent Jesus the message from John “are you the one who is to come, or should we expect someone else?” (John 7:20).  Jesus responds “Go back and report to John what you have seen and heard: The blind receive sight, the lame walk, those that have leprosy are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the good news is proclaimed to the poor.” (v 22).

Am I the only one who doesn’t like what Jesus had to say?  Jesus had the power to set John free in an instant. He just had to say the word and John would be a free man.  But he didn’t do what we all would have hoped he would do.

In hindsight, we can say John the Baptist’s life had a very specific purpose.  It was to prepare the way for Jesus.  And prepare the way he did!  John’s unconventional appearance and gospel message attracted crowds, of whom many he baptized (including Jesus). And he was given the highest compliment ever given to man.  Jesus himself said “….among those born of women there is no one greater than John…” (v 28).

So yes, John was in prison and Jesus could have said the word and he would be free.  But the purpose for which John was put on the earth was being served even when John was in prison.  The kingdom of God was moving forward.  The blind could see, the deaf could hear, and lives were being changed.

As Ryan Leak mentioned, we have to be careful about making a judgement on God based on what we see happening in the natural realm.  The story isn’t finished.  The picture that God is painting is not yet completed.  

This came to life for me recently when I was watching a step by step video of a cake decorator putting together a cake.  At certain steps in the process, I would think, why is she doing that?  That doesn’t look good at all!  But as I continued to watch until the end, I saw how each seemingly “ugly” part of the cake ended up playing a part in making the cake come together beautifully at the end.

And so is with us, God is still putting together the story of our lives individually and collectively.   

As our founding Pastor Mike Hayes said so beautifully…this is where our faith to believe for a miracle turns to the faith that trusts God’s ways.  And because His ways are higher than our minds can comprehend, we can leave the secret things with Him and trust Him no matter what the outcome.

~Vijoy