Prayer & Lazarus

Lazarus: John 11

Prayer in the story of Lazarus. Friends and relatives of Lazarus had asked Jesus to come and heal Lazarus, but He didnʼt do what they expected him to. Lazarus had been dead four days before Jesus even arrived. Hopeless, the people mourned. They were confused, even angry with Jesus. How could He be so selfish?

Why hadnʼt He come sooner? Our prayers arenʼt always answered quickly. Theyʼre not always answered how we would wish them to be. However, we must keep faith that God is allowing us to suffer for a purpose. We must keep praying. Our prayers are heard. Jesus used the death of His friend, to bring the Father glory and to create new grounds for belief. Before calling Lazarus out of the tomb, Jesus prayed: "Father, I thank you that you have heard me. I knew that you always hear me, but I said this on account of the people standing around, that they may believe that you sent me" (John 11, ESV).

God always hears our prayers. My prayer is that we will use His answers to bring Him glory and to provide new grounds for belief in the deity of Christ.

“While the characters of Martha and Mary are distinctly drawn, nothing is known of the character and temper of Lazarus. Not a word from him is recorded. He appears in the Gospel story, not for any shining qualities of character, but solely because of Christ’s miracle restoring him to life and the impact that the restoration produced. His resuscitation after being dead four days caused many Jews to believe in Jesus ( 11:45 ), but caused the Sanhedrin to agree to put Jesus to death ( 11:47 - 53 ).”- Glo Bible Software

When Jesus got the message, he said, "This sickness is not fatal. It will become an occasion to show God's glory by glorifying God's Son."How can your setbacks be used to glorify Jesus?

_________________________________________ _________________________________________ _________________________________________ _________________________________________ _________________________________________ _________________________________________ “Then Jesus became explicit: "Lazarus died. And I am glad for your sakes that I wasn't there. You're about to be given new grounds for believing. Now let's go to him." How can God use your troubles to create new grounds for belief?

_________________________________________ _________________________________________ _________________________________________ _________________________________________ _________________________________________ _________________________________________

Prayer: A Matter of Life and Breath Rachael Keetch | rkee669@crandalluniversity.ca

Why I Am Alive The Short Version: When I was 11 I was super sick and my parents were told it was fatal. The church prayed and God healed me.

The Longer Version: I grew up on the banks of the St. John River Valley. My father and mother were committed Christians who prayed for me before I went to school and before I went to bed. I always knew prayer as a normal thing to do. I knew it worked. My earliest memories of prayer are from my grandmother, Marina (White) Keetch. My sister Katie and I were known to lose anything valuable ( I still am). Our grandmother was known to pray that we’d find the things we lost, and nearly every time she would pray, whatever we had lost, would be found. One summer afternoon my sister lost her favorite ring. We looked and looked for it, not wanting anyone to know Kate had lost it. Finally, Katie asked my Nanny to pray she would find it, and sure enough she found it right away!

Prayer for me, was my way out of trouble. When I turned 11, I had no idea what kind of trouble prayer was going to overcome in my life. It was that year that the Lord demonstrated the power of prayer to me.

When I was 11 Jesus decided it was time to teach me, quite possibly, the most important lesson of my life. A lot of the time, Jesus teaches us things in round about ways. However, He knew I needed to be involved in the lesson.

My whole body hurt. My fingertips peeled off. My toes ached (In a heavily medicated state I asked my mom to stop putting pop bottles on my toes!) My soft skin was covered in a broken rash and my eyes sunk deep into my face. My body had ran out of places to inject needles, so the doctor had to put a tube through my arm to administer medicine. There were so many electronics attached to me that I appeared more machine than human. My bowel was about to burst.

Perhaps most significant, my heart had a hole in it. All of this kept me confined to the pediatrics ward for a solid month. They called it Kawasaki syndrome.

Ironically, my dad had (and has) a kawasaki fourwheeler.

Some of you might recall when John Travolta’s son died. It was from the same illness. Kawasaki Syndrome is not like the flu. In normal circumstances, you do not wake up one day feeling fine. It takes your life. Either quickly, or over years. However, I am the exception. For me, it was prayer that made the difference.

I am thankful for the effort and kindness the hospital workers showed me. However, little they did helped. I got worse and worse, until one night. A CAT scan revealed that my bowel would soon erupt and infection would be more than I could fight. A helicopter was ready to take me to the IWK. The hospital staff sat my parents down to tell them it was over. Chances were, I wouldn’t make it the night. My parents called their church and the church called a prayer meeting. The IWK requested another CAT scan be done before sending me off.. They wanted to watch, so they could be ready when I arrived. However, the second scan read a bit different. My body was recovering at an abnormal rate. I am a big fan of comic books, so I like to think that in that moment I became a member of the XMen, but that would only pale in comparison to the truth. The truth being that, in that moment, Jesus taught me that He is the great physician. Jesus taught me that the prayers matter. He listened to the prayers of His people. He healed his daughter. Five days after this, I was discharged.

However, the story continues. Hospital staff won’t just let you go free that easy. They’ve got to check everything out.

I’m glad they did because it made my faith even stronger.

Remember that hole in my heart? It disappeared. The Doctor Everett Chalmer’s Hospital in Fredericton had just received a new 3D Cardiac Ultrasound, and i was among the first to use it. Through the machine, I was able to see my heart. I was able to see a perfectly healthy heart. Jesus didn’t even leave a scar. I know it was Jesus, because the doctors told my parents that they hadn’t done anything to treat my bowel or heart.

It was a rough month after this. At school, I got made-funof for being so skinny. I weighed about half of my current weight and was only 2 inches shorter. I also had to learn to eat and walk again, which was embarrassing at times, but it likely made me a better person. Although allowing my parents and I to suffer may not seem like the just thing to do, I continuously thank God for allowing all this to happen.

I don’t know how my faith could be so strong without this experience. I don’t know if prayer would seem so valuable without the experience.

God had given me eleven years of Sunday School and I hadn’t fallen in love with Him. It wasn’t until a year or so after all this that I did. It’s quite possible that without this memory, I’d be missing out on a lot right now. God has blessed me with so much. I honestly do not know how people live without Him. I certainly wouldn’t have. I only remember praying once throughout my hospital stay. I recall being prayed for a lot. But I only remember praying the once. I remember a dark room, a prayer, and comfort. I don’t remember the details, but I knew then I would be okay. I am.

{ q u e s t i o n ? } I do not know why some people are healed and others are not. I donʼt know why Jesus choose to resurrect Lazarus, out of the many who died during His ministry. I donʼt know why I was healed, out of the many people churches pray for. All I can tell you is that God does listen to our prayers and He also does heal. I was dying, the church prayed and my life was restored. It is easy to think that I was healed because of some divine purpose only I could fulfill. I doubt that is the case. While I maintain the belief that God has purpose for each and every individual, I donʼt believe His purposes are dependent on me. Rather, I rejoice that God has given me the opportunity to be part of His mission. We canʼt understand all of His purpose in the present; however, we must remember the role of prayer.

We must remember that prayer does work. It is important. Through prayer, we are able to be participants in Godʼs mission for humanity. It is a beautiful gift, that is useless in storage. Prayer is a gift for everyday use. Through the prayer of the church, people are given life. If youʼre unfamiliar with prayer, this might all seem mystical. I challenge you to pray and discover how real it is. You might not see results immediately, but rest assured God hears you and is working through you.

“I would be dead without the prayers of the church.”

Prayer

changes things

”When Jesus got the message, he said, ‘This sickness is not fatal. It will become an occasion to show God's glory by glorifying God's Son.’ (John 11:4).

glory |ˈglôrē| noun ( pl. -ries) 1 high renown or honor won by notable achievements : to fight and die for the glory of one's nation.

• praise, worship, and thanksgiving offered to God. 2 magnificence; great beauty : the train has been restored to all its former glory.

• (often glories) a thing that is beautiful or distinctive; a special cause for pride, respect, or delight : the glories of Paris.

• the splendor and bliss of heaven : with the saints in glory.

Lazarus: John 1 Nobody really knows much about Lazarus. We don’t know if he was kind, funny, loving, cruel, or crazy. The Bible doesn’t tell us anything about his personality. All we really know about him is that after he died, Jesus brought him back to life. This miracle caused a lot of people in his community to believe in Jesus (11:45) “Then Jesus became explicit: "Lazarus died.

And I am glad for your sakes that I wasn't there. You're about to be given new grounds for believing. Now let's go to him."

How can your bad times be used to

How can God use your troubles to help people

glorify Jesus?

believe that He is real?

God is Real.

I was dying | the church prayed | I am healthy rachael keetch rkee669@crandalluniversity.ca

Why I Am ALive The Short Version: When I was 11 I was super sick and my parents were told I would die. The church prayed and God healed me.

The Longer Version: I grew up in “the sticks.” My parents were Christians who prayed for me before I went to school and before I went to bed. I knew it worked. My sister Katie and I were known to lose anything valuable ( I still am). Our grandmother was known to pray that we’d find the things we lost, and nearly every time she would pray, whatever we had lost, would be found. One summer afternoon my sister lost her favorite ring. We spent the day looking for it, but had no luck. Finally, Katie asked “Nanny” to pray that we could find it, and sure enough Katie found her ring in the next few minutes. It was in the gravel under the deck–where we had already looked.

Prayer for me, was my way out of trouble. When I turned 11, I had no idea what kind of trouble prayer was going to get me out of.

When I was 11 Jesus decided it was time to teach me a very important lesson. A lot of the time, Jesus teaches us things through our youth leaders and pastors, but God must have known that I would have to “find out for myself.”

My whole body hurt. The skin on my fingertips peeled off. My toes ached (While on a lot of painkillers, I asked my mom to stop putting pop bottles on my toes!) My soft skin was covered in a gross rash and I looked like I had been beat up behind the gym. They ran out of places to inject

needles, so the doctor put a tube through my arm to give me my medicine. He called it a butterfly. There were so many electronics attached to me that I kind of looked like a robot. My bowel (where your food waste goes) was about to burst. If that wasn’t bad enough, my heart had a hole in it. I was so sick that I had to stay in the hospital for about a month.

They called it Kawasaki syndrome. Ironically, my dad had (and has) a kawasaki four-wheeler. Kawasaki Syndrome is not like the flu. You do not wake up one day feeling better. It kills you. Sometimes fast, sometimes slower. I am the exception. For me, it was prayer that made the difference. Prayer is the reason why I am alive.

The doctors and nursers were all very kind and did their best to help, but they couldn’t make me better.

I got worse and worse, until one night when a CAT scan revealed that my bowel would soon erupt and infection would be more than I could fight. A helicopter was ready to take me to the IWK. The hospital staff sat my parents down to tell them it was over. Chances were, I would die in the next few hours. My parents called their church and the church called other churches. I’m told that churches all over the world were praying for me. The IWK requested another CAT scan to be done before sending me off.

The doctors at the IWK wanted to watch the video footage as I went through this CAT scan (it’s sort of like an XRay for organs instead of bones), so they could be ready when I arrived. This scan read a bit different. My body was healing really fast. I am a big fan of comic books, so I like to think that in that moment I became a member of the XMen, but that isn’t near as awesome as the truth. The truth being that, in that moment, Jesus taught me that He is the best doctor. Jesus taught me that prayer matters. He listened to the prayers of His people and healed me!

Five days later, I was allowed to go home!

Fortunately, my miracle didn’t end with me going home. Doctors don’t let you off the hook that easy.

They’ve got to check everything out. I’m glad they did because it made certain faith God healed me.

Remember that hole in my heart? It disappeared. The hospital had just received a new machine, and i was one of the first to use it. The machine projected my

heart onto a screen. The doctor showed me my perfectly healthy heart. Jesus didn’t even leave a scar. I know it was Jesus, because the doctors told my parents that they hadn’t done anything to treat my bowel or heart.

It was a rough month after this. At school, I got made-fun-of a lot for being so skinny. I weighed about half of my current weight and was only 2 inches shorter. I also had to learn to eat and walk again, which was embarrassing at times, but it likely made me a better person. Although allowing my parents and I to hurt may not seem like the right thing to do, I thank God for allowing all this to happen. I don’t know how my faith could be so strong without this experience.

I had gone to Sunday School my whole life and didn’t really know God. It wasn’t until a year or so after I was sick that I came to know Christ as my Saviour.

It’s quite possible that without this memory, I’d be missing out on a lot right now. God has blessed me with so much. I honestly do not know how people live without Him. I certainly wouldn’t have. I only remember praying once throughout my hospital stay. A lot of people prayed for me, but I only remember praying the once. I remember a dark room, a prayer, and comfort. I don’t remember the details, but I knew then I would be okay. I am.

God h

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