ROLL AWAY THE STONE

SONG:

Take away the stone. The stone of doubt and unbelief

The stone of fear and trembling in my life.

Take away the stone. The stone of doubt and unbelief

The stone of fear and trembling in my life

TEXT:

 "Jesus said, Take ye away the stone. Martha, the sister of him that was dead, saith unto him, Lord, by this time he stinketh: for he hath been dead four days." (John 11 verse 39).

  Jesus indeed told the mourners to roll away the stone that was on the tomb of Lazarus, to the end that the miracle of his resurrection might be complete.

  There are different kinds of stones that stand to hinder or delay the actualization of God's promises upon our lives as individuals and collectively as members of the body of Christ.

  In the matter of Lazarus, it was a physical stone, but in our lives, it might not be a physical stone. It might be a stone of doubt, unbelief or what have you.

Let's look at the Book of Hebrews to see what it says about unbelief.

"And to whom sware he that they should not enter into his rest, but to them that believed not? So we see that they could not enter in because of unbelief."

 (Hebrews chapter 3 verses 18 to 19.)

    Here, we are told that the children of Israel could not enter into their rest because of unbelief. This is to mean that they couldn't enjoy the fullness of the land of promise, flowing with milk and honey, simply because of unbelief.

On the other hand, the hindrance could be a stone of stubbornness, unruly characters, etc.

In this regard, the book of First Samuel chapter 12 verse 23 states as follows:

 "For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry. Because thou hast rejected the word of the LORD, he hath also rejected thee from being king."

  King Saul was rejected by God because of His act of rebellion and disobedience to His commands. He did what was contrary to the instructions given to him by the servant of God. When Saul led the people of Israel in a battle against the Amalekites, God specifically told him not to spare anything in that land, but out of his own selfish interests, pride and disobedience he spared the good looking animals and King Agag. His pride and self-centeredness took control of his thinking, leading him to go contrary to God's commands. He also wanted to satisfy his own selfish interests. These acts of disobedience and pride made the Lord reject him as king. No doubt, his ending was disastrous. These examples and more should serve to warn us in our walk with God.

  From our today's reading we see that until the stone upon the tomb of Lazarus was rolled away, Lazarus could not emerge from the tomb. With that, the miracle could not be completed and the expectations of Martha and Mary, his two sisters could not be actualized. Towards this end, the Lord Jesus had to ask the bystanders that were present to roll away the stone that covered the tomb.

   In the same vein, for you to experience the fullness of God's promises and blessings, you must be ready to do away with all manner of things that could stand to hinder you from enjoying the fullness of God's promises and purposes for your life.

PRAYER

Lord, I pray that You help me to do away with every stone that stands to hinder me from enjoying the fullness of all Your promises and blessings, in Jesus Mighty name.