What astounding news!

The disciples had glimpsed the glory of Christ, witnessed the majesty of Christ, seen the authority of Christ, heard the wisdom of Christ, experienced the power of Christ. There was no doubt in their minds that Jesus of Nazareth was indeed the Lamb of God, Who would take away the sin of the world; the Son of God, Who was God in the flesh; the Messiah, fulfilling all the Old Testament prophecy; and the King of Israel.

They knew the Old Testament promises of freedom for the oppressed and victory over the wicked when the Messiah would reign as King over the whole earth. They must have dreamed of the power, position, and prestige of the righteous. They must have prayed and fasted for the day when wrong would be set right, when truth would triumph over lies, when love would win over hate, when goodness would prevail over wickedness the day when the glory and knowledge of the Lord would fill the whole earth as the waters cover the sea. And they thought the day had come! They believed Jesus of Nazareth was the fulfillment of God's promises to His people. Yet Jesus had been crucified on a Roman cross, where He had died with common criminals. The despair and devastation of the disciples were left unrelieved as Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus took the initiative, requested the body, and buried Jesus in a borrowed tomb. Jesus, the source of their hopes and dreams and purpose and meaning and fulfillment, the answer to their prayers, the fulfillment of God's long-awaited promise was dead and buried!

What hopes and dreams and purpose, based on His promise, has God given you? A promise of a loved one's salvation? physical or financial relief? the reconciliation of a relationship? an open door for ministry? the birth of a child? a business opportunity? Have you watched the promise die? Are you tempted to doubt the love of God to care about the promise? Or doubt the integrity of God to keep the promise? Or doubt the power of God to fulfill His promise? And are you therefore deeply discouraged, depressed, despondent, devastated, because all of your hopes, dreams, plans are in ashes there is no human avenue left as a means of fulfillment?

Abraham knew the bitterness of disappointed hopes. God had promised in Genesis 12:1-3 that if Abraham would leave Ur and begin following Him in a walk of faith, He would make of Abraham a great nation. God had confirmed His promise in Genesis 15:4 when He said, "... a son coming from your own body will be your heir." After ten years of living by faith, not only was Abraham not a great nation, he wasn't even a father. So he must have decided, "God helps those who help themselves", and with his wife Sarah's blessing, fathered a son by a young servant girl. The son, Ishmael, was not the fulfillment of God's promise.

Instead of helping God fulfill His promise, Abraham actually seemed to hinder Him. Fourteen long years later Romans 4:19 says his body was as good as dead. He was close to 100 years of age, and his wife Sarah was 90. In other words, there were no human means of fulfilling God's promise at all. When Abraham was totally, humanly hopeless and helpless, God came to him and told him, Is anything too hard for the Lord? I will return to you at the appointed time next year and Sarah will have a son. The following year, when Abraham was 100 years old, The Lord was gracious to Sarah as He had said, and the Lord did for Sarah what He had promised. Sarah became pregnant and bore a son to Abraham in his old age, at the very time God had promised him. Sometimes God brings us to the point of utter hopelessness and despair until we cast ourselves upon His Word, utterly dependent upon Him alone for the fulfillment of what He has promised.

In the Fall newsletter, I requested that you pray that I would have a greater dependence upon God. I knew, even as I made that request, that I was asking for trouble. Sure enough, it came.

Over Christmas, my father fell and broke four ribs. I received a call from him a few weeks later, asking me to go immediately with my mother to Mayo clinic where she needed to undergo some tests. Before I could get there, she fell and broke two ribs. About two weeks after I took her home from Mayo's, she underwent surgery to help relieve her of back pain. While I was caring for her as she recovered, my husband called to say three trees had fallen on our house during an ice storm. The next day he called to say one of our daughters had been admitted to the hospital, unable to swallow and having difficulty breathing (it turned out to be an allergic reaction).

Within a month of being back in my travel schedule, I received another call saying my mother was going in for emergency surgery, and had a fifty-fifty chance of making it through the night (she has since almost completely recovered praise God!).

Although I expected God to turn up the heat and increase the pressure in order to teach me a greater dependence upon Him, what I did not expect was that He would withdraw the feeling of His Presence so that I felt abandoned by Him at the same time.

For weeks I struggled, wondering what was wrong, what sin was hindering my awareness of Him. The loneliness intensified the burdens I was carrying. Then it seemed to come to me clearly that what He was doing was answering your prayer for me He was teaching me a greater dependence upon Him and His Word alone. He seemed to say to me in I Kings 12:24 that this was His doing. From Habbakuk 1:5 He promised He was doing something I wouldn't believe, even if He told me. And I knew He would never leave me nor forsake me. For weeks I went without feelings. He required that my faith rest in what I knew to be truth, based on His Word which says He is faithful, He is good, He is loving, He is kind. Then He began to restore the feelings, with a new confidence that came from a stronger faith and deeper dependence upon Him. And it's as though I am standing on tip-toe, wondering what is He preparing me for?!

Do you feel God has abandoned you because He is silent and still in your life? Could it be He is enlarging your faith also strengthening it in His Word and character alone, while He teaches you a greater dependence upon Him? And could it be that His work in your life is preceding something wonderful He wants to give you or do for you?

Martha was a woman whose brother Lazarus became extremely ill. She prayed and asked Jesus for His help, knowing He loved Lazarus. Instead of an immediate answer, she was greeted with silence and stillness for four days. It must have seemed an eternity. When Jesus finally arrived on the scene, Lazarus was dead and buried. Martha complained, Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died. The implication is, but now that he is dead, there is nothing You or anyone else can do.

So Jesus gave Martha a promise: "I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me will live, even though he dies... Do you believe this?" Although Martha said she believed, when confronted with a challenge to roll away the stone at the mouth of Lazarus tomb and prove her faith with obedience, she resisted: "But Lord, by this time there is a bad odor, for he has been there four days." In other words, Lord, that's not a good idea. I'll make a fool of myself. There is no hope for his healing -he's dead. He's beyond hope. There is nothing anyone can do to help alter the situation. Then Jesus said, Did I not tell you that if you believed -if you put your faith in Me and My Word alone-you would see the glory of God?

And so the stone was rolled away, and the rest is history. Jesus called Lazarus forth from the tomb, raising him to life, fulfilling His promise to Martha. The principle is that there are times when God gives us a promise, He allows every possible human method and means for its fulfillment to die. When all of our hope and faith are in Him and Him alone, He gives to us what was promised.

In my own life, I have a promise from God's Word which I have continually claimed in prayer. I understand Abraham's struggle in wanting to do all he humanly could to help God fulfill His promise. I know something, too, of Abraham's shame when the very action he took to help became not only a source of suffering, but a real hindrance to receiving what God wanted to give him. Why do we think we have to help God out by doing all we can to fulfill the promise? I am presently somewhere between the birth of Ishmael and the birth of Isaac. I am where the disciples were on Saturday. Just resting waiting for Sunday to come. There is nothing I can do to hasten or help God fulfill His promise and answer my prayer. My dependence is upon God, and God alone.

Which is why the angel's announcement "He is not here, He is risen" rings with such thrilling implications! The resurrection on Sunday had been preceded by the Cross on Friday and the tomb on Saturday. In other words, God's most powerful work is often preceded by the deep-down acknowledgement of our own utter hopelessness and helplessness. When we are totally dependent upon Him, and Him alone, He is released to accomplish His purpose and fulfill His promise to us.

Which day of the week is it in your life? Is it Friday, and you are experiencing the death of God's promise to you? Is it Saturday, and you are filled with a numb hopeless, helpless despair? Then this AnGeL would say to you, "Place all your faith in God alone-Sunday is coming!"

In His Joy,

Anne Graham Lotz