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Daily Devotionals
Grace for Today
John 11:40
‘If thou wouldest believe’
Read Mark 5:35 to Mark 6:6
Every believer’s great desire is to see the glory of God. Almost every time we pray, whether in the public assembly of God’s church or in private, we repeat the prayer of Moses: ‘I beseech thee, show me thy glory’ (Exodus 33:18). We do not always use his words, but the prayer is the same: ‘Lord, show us your glory.’ Is this your desire? It is mine. Why is it then that we seem to see the glory of God so little? Our Lord tells us very plainly, Jesus said, ‘said I not unto thee, that if thou wouldest believe, thou shouldest see the glory of God?’ This was a gentle, but firm reproof. If Martha had simply believed she would have seen the glory of God in her brother’s sickness and death, as well as in his resurrection. What a reproof this is to us today! If we did but believe in God, as he ought to be believed, if we implicitly trusted him in all things, as we say we do, we should see his glory in all things.
Faith sees the glory of God in the gospel (Romans 3:23-26). Believing God we see the glory of his wisdom and truth, justice and mercy, righteousness and grace in saving sinners by the doing and dying of the Lord Jesus, the sinner’s Substitute.
Faith sees the glory of God in providence (Romans 8:28; Romans 11:36). Confident trust and assurance of God’s sovereign rule over all things causes the believer to see God’s glory in all things. We see his glory either in the immediate event or the prospective outcome. But in all, faith sees the glory of God’s wisdom, power and grace in providence. In all that he does, (creation, redemption, providence and salvation), God’s glory is seen by those who believe. And faith will see the glory of God in the resurrection.
Yet the primary force of our Lord’s reproof is this: if we did but believe we should see the glory of God working in our midst (Mark 6:5-6). ‘Unbelief is so vile and venomous an evil that it transfuseth a kind of dead palsy into the hands of omnipotency’ (John Trapp). Christ can do all things by his absolute power. But he can do nothing for unbelievers. He cannot, because he will not. May God give us faith to believe, so that we may see the glory of God working in our midst!
