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Speaker 1: Life Audio.

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Speaker 2: Welcome to the Crosswalk devotional. We're glad to have you

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Speaker 2: listening with us. Today's topic is what hope looks like

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Speaker 2: when the Miracle hasn't come. We'll return with the devotional

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Speaker 2: after a brief message from our sponsors, When the Miracle

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Speaker 2: Hasn't Come yet, written and read by Sarah Fraser. If

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Speaker 2: God loves me, why am I suffering? I asked this

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Speaker 2: question many years ago while sitting awake in bed at

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Speaker 2: two am. I was battling an intense time of depression

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Speaker 2: and anxiety. Sleep would not come. Even after begging God

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Speaker 2: for relief. I had gotten so tired I couldn't rest.

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Speaker 2: Tears rolled down my cheek. As I walked through the

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Speaker 2: valley of depression. I began to search out why God

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Speaker 2: would delay my healing. I wrestled with the question of

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Speaker 2: how God could be loving but also allow suffering as well.

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Speaker 2: Our passage for today speaks into this tension. Now, a

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Speaker 2: man named Lazarus was sick. Jesus loved Martha and her

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Speaker 2: sister and Lazarus, so he stayed where he was two

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Speaker 2: more days. John eleven five through six. Notice that it

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Speaker 2: said Jesus loved them. It is evident in other scriptures

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Speaker 2: that Jesus had a close relationship with all three of

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Speaker 2: these siblings, Yet when they needed him the most, Jesus delayed.

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Speaker 2: If he loved them, why didn't he hurry to heal

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Speaker 2: Lazarus For two day Jesus didn't move. So many of

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Speaker 2: us feel like we are living in that two day delay.

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Speaker 2: We are loved, but we are still waiting. One night,

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Speaker 2: while I was sitting in bed, unable to fall asleep again,

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Speaker 2: I remember finally being honest with God. I told him

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Speaker 2: that I was so depressed, and I asked him why

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Speaker 2: he didn't take this pain away. Mary and Martha and

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Speaker 2: John eleven were also honest with God. Lord. Martha said

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Speaker 2: to Jesus, if you had been here, my brother would

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Speaker 2: not have died. John eleven, twenty one. There is belief here.

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Speaker 2: She believed God Jesus could have helped, but she also

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Speaker 2: expressed her grief. How many of us shy away from

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Speaker 2: both things when we are waiting for relief from our

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Speaker 2: own suffering. Faith in God doesn't mean we can't be disappointed.

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Speaker 2: Jesus did not chide her for her honesty. Believing God's

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Speaker 2: promises and his power does not silence our sorrow. Although

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Speaker 2: Jesus does resurrect Lazarus, Martha didn't know this. You and

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Speaker 2: I know that one day our new bodies will not

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Speaker 2: suffer and all tears will be wiped away. But that

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Speaker 2: doesn't mean that we don't live in unresolved circumstances now.

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Speaker 2: For in this hope we are saved. But hope that

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Speaker 2: is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for

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Speaker 2: what they already have? But if we hope for what

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Speaker 2: we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently.

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Speaker 2: Romans eight twenty four, twenty five. Biblical hope is not

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Speaker 2: wishful thinking or denial. Mary and Martha did not deny

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Speaker 2: the pain, nor did they have a vague belief in Jesus.

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Speaker 2: Martha stood in her grief before she saw glory. Many

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Speaker 2: of us do that too. Paul in the Book of

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Speaker 2: Romans encourages us to wait for what we cannot see

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Speaker 2: and hope will come. Resurrection means that death does not win,

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Speaker 2: delay does not cancel love, and the grave does not

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Speaker 2: get the final word. Often we believe that God's love

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Speaker 2: means we will have immediate answers or instant healing. Instead,

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Speaker 2: we find that God's timeline in ours doesn't always match.

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Speaker 2: Jesus was the resurrection and the life before Lazarus walked

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Speaker 2: out of the tomb. He is the resurrection for us,

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Speaker 2: even if tears fall. I am the resurrection and the life,

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Speaker 2: John eleven, twenty five. Notice what Jesus did not say,

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Speaker 2: I will perform a resurrection. He said I am. This

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Speaker 2: is one of the many I am statements found throughout

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Speaker 2: the Gospel of John. In this moment, Jesus is declaring

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Speaker 2: himself God. Very soon after this miracle, Jesus will face

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Speaker 2: his own death, and then God would resurrect Jesus as well.

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Speaker 2: Notice that the miracle came later today. Jesus is still

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Speaker 2: our hope and our savior and our king, even if

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Speaker 2: we find ourselves still inside what feels like a tomb.

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Speaker 2: Depression is like a tomb for me. So many times

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Speaker 2: I've suffered through seasons of extreme sorrow, feeling like I

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Speaker 2: was dying. In those moments, I began to cling to Jesus.

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Speaker 2: Nothing around me felt any different. But as I read scripture,

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Speaker 2: especially this passage in John eleven, I realize that Jesus

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Speaker 2: sees my sorrow, loves me deeply, and is willing and

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Speaker 2: was willing to die himself so I could one day

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Speaker 2: be free from pain and sorrow. The same savior who

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Speaker 2: sometimes allows suffering is the one who ultimately conquered it

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Speaker 2: on the cross. So if you find yourself praying at

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Speaker 2: two am, longing for relief, just remember that you are

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Speaker 2: not forgotten. You may not see the miracle yet, but

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Speaker 2: you are not waiting alone. Intersecting faith and life, Where

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Speaker 2: does it feel like God is late in showing up

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Speaker 2: for you? What prayer feels unanswered? What miracle are you

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Speaker 2: waiting and hoping for? You are not abandoned in the delay.

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Speaker 2: Love can coexist with waiting.

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Speaker 1: Resurrection.

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Speaker 2: Hope sustains sometimes before it resolves. Additional reading Isaiah thirty eighteen,

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Speaker 2: Lamentations threewenty five, twenty six, Second Corinthians four sixteen through eighteen,

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Speaker 2: Hebrews eleven thirteen, Revelation twenty one four through five.

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Speaker 1: Thanks for listening to today's devotional. If you liked what

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