“Jesus said, ‘Take away the stone.’ Martha, the sister of the dead man, said to him, ‘Lord, by this time there will be an odor, for he has been dead four days.’ Jesus said to her, ‘Did I not tell you that if you believed you would see the glory of God?’ So they took away the stone.” (John 11:39–41)

The confidence of faith is the eye through which we can see the glory of God. “According to your faith be it done to you” (Mt. 9:29), the Lord Jesus once said to two blind men. As a result their eyes were opened. It is often unbelief that hinders the work of God, as Matthew 13:58 makes clear, “He did not do many mighty works there, because of their unbelief.” How much of God’s glorious activity we could see in everyday life and then experience how He still moves mountains today if we would trust Him more and in a more child like way (see Mt. 17:20)!

The Son of God knew from the beginning that God would allow the illness of Lazarus to bring His glory to light (John11:4). He loved this family at Bethany and they loved Him. Paul writes, “We know that for those who love God all things work together for good” (Rom. 8:28)—as it was in this case.

Just as He did with Jairus (see Mark 5:36), the Lord also urged Martha to trust Him in this seemingly hopeless situation. After they finally took away the stone from in front of the tomb in the obedience of faith, the Lord Jesus revealed the glory of God. Sometimes we can only see the wonderful action of God when we take that first step in the obedience of faith.

Jairus saw the glory of God because he listened to the words of Jesus, “Do not fear, only believe” (Mark 5:36), and continued walking with Him. Peter, in the obedience of faith, first had to row out into the deep in the middle of the day and let down the nets for the catch to see the glory of God (see Luke 5:4–6). Two of Jesus’ disciples, in obedient faith,were to go to a village and simply untie a donkey belonging to a stranger, trusting that they would not be bothered if they said, “The Lord needs them” (Mt. 21:2–3). Ananias too only saw what the wonderful grace of God can bring aboutwhen, after initial hesitation, he sought out in obedience of faith the one who, until then, had persecuted the believers to the point of blood (see Acts 9:17–18).

God wants us to trust Him when He gives us assignments—even if they may not make sense to us at first or we can’t foresee what will come out of them. In such situations the Lord Jesus also says to us, “Did I not tell you that if you believed you would see the glory of God?” (John 11:40).

Is there something in your life that you know you should be doing, but you hesitate because you fear the consequences? What prevents you from ‘letting go’ and just trusting the Lord ‘blindly’?Dare to step out onto the water to experience more of how wonderfully He operates!