Jesus called in a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out!” 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.” John 11:43-44 (NIV)
Lord Jesus, as surely as you spoke the words to a dead Lazarus, “Come out” and he was raised from the dead, so when you spoke the gospel to our hearts, we too were raised to newness of life. We have passed from death to life, from condemnation for our sins to the righteousness of faith, and from life in the kingdom of darkness to life in the kingdom of God. Hallelujah, for your sovereign, irresistible, inexhaustible grace!
Yet as surely as Lazarus needed to be freed from his “grave-clothes,” so do we. The signs of death still cling to us, bind us, and trip us up. We have a new heart, but not a perfected heart. How we think, feel, and choose remain in need of your Spirit’s ongoing work. We long for greater healing and freedom.
Jesus, grant us greater freedom from living for the approval of mere men. Some people have way more power over our hearts than they deserve. Their criticism and rejection can devastate us; and their praise and admiration can make us. May your great love for us, and delight in us, shift the center of our relational world. Help us to love others as you love us, period.
We also crave to be set free from our self-centered worries and heart-troubling fears. Jesus, you have the hearts of all the kings in your hand—along with our past and future, brokenness and burdens, heartaches and hopes. Perhaps the most tenacious fragment of our grave-clothes, still wrapped tightly around our hearts, is our unbelief. Continue to free us to trust you implicitly and explicitly, with all things at all times. It’s not a cute little song, but a profound comfort: You DO have the whole world in your hands.
By the power of the Spirit, help us stay more alive to your love than to our losses, and to be more marked by your grace than by our gripes. So very Amen we pray, in your glorious and grace-full name.