03/29/2026
God can handle your prayers.
One of the most moving lines in scripture is when Martha approached Jesus after her brother Lazarus died and said to Him, “If you had been here, Lord, my brother would not have died!” I don't think that line was delivered calm and cool. I think she was frustrated. Hurt. Crying and upset that He had not shown up when she needed Him the most. “God…where the heck were you?!” Have you ever prayed like that?
Sometimes we think that, in order to pray well, we have to "play holy." To pray well is to bring your very heart to God even if it’s in agony as it was for Martha. She wasn’t just speaking to the King of Kings, but to a friend, and with zero pretense. Turns out, that’s the kind of prayer most likely to get God’s attention. Lazarus was raised from the dead.
But even if our heartfelt prayers are not answered in the way we want, those are the kinds of prayers wherein we give our very selves to God. When we do that, we get the most important answer of all: We experience God with us in our pain.
Before Jesus raised Lazarus, He first stood by Martha in her agony. Perhaps more mind blowing than John 11:44, “The dead man came out” of his tomb, is John 11:35, the shortest line in the New Testament, “Jesus wept.” He wept, with her. He didn’t run from her pain, anxiety, and frustration. He doesn’t run from yours either.
One of the most healing ways to deal with painful memories, where we didn’t get what we wanted, is to put yourself there, and imagine Jesus’s presence in the room.
Let yourself feel the frustration of Martha. Feel free to ask, “where were you, Lord?!” God can handle it.
But then, imagine Him standing with you in the pain, weeping. That is His heart’s response to the suffering of His friends.
You are his friend. He’s never left you. He never will.
He suffers WITH us.
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