Luke 7:20

New International Version

When the men came to Jesus, they said, “John the Baptist sent us to you to ask, ‘Are you the one who is to come, or should we expect someone else?’”

For Encouragement 

She is a respected mother of four children. She was an English professor and well-known author of textbooks for secondary schools in her home country. Her son died in a traumatic car accident the night before he was to travel overseas for his master’s degree in pharmacy.

Devastated, she took consolation in the recovery of her alcoholic elder son. But, forty days after the burial of her third-born in the car accident, this son also died. He was doing great when she left him in the hospital to return the following day for his discharge, so how could he die that way? What is going on, and what is God doing to her?

She has served the Lord well. A Catholic of Catholics, she was the speechwriter for the Cardinal and chief editor for the Diocese. So, why was God dealing with her so bitterly? Is He real? Is He the same loving God she had given herself to serve with all her heart?

After the second burial, the church became her enemy. She took issue with God and could not bear the mention of His name around her. Withdrawing from everybody, she has become a recluse, alone in a big house. The committed believer and Professor has stumbled on Christ, convinced He does not care about her and her situation. John the Baptist almost fell the same way.

Jesus elevated him above all who were born of a woman (John 7:28). He was the forerunner of the Messiah. John baptized the Lord and introduced Him as the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world (1:25). He knew Christ from the womb and acknowledged Him when Mary visited Elizabeth, his mother (Luke 1:44). Disappointed and almost doubting, John sent to Jesus to ask if He was the Messiah (John 7:19). Jesus showed, practically, His power over sicknesses, evil spirits, and death and sent John’s messengers to go back and reassure John with their report (20-22).

Sometimes, that is all we need to hear from Jesus when we are hard-pressed and feel rejected and forsaken. We need the reassurance that He is who He is and has not changed despite His silence.

So, what have you been calling on the Lord for, day and night, with fasting and prayers? You have affirmed His Sovereignty and called on His covenant names in prayers. You have stood on His promises and supplicated, yet He feels a billion miles away, and now you also want to distance yourself from Him.

Please, don’t do it. Receive this word of Christ to John and let it encourage you:

“Blessed is anyone who does not stumble on account of me” (23).

Look on Jesus and His marvelous deeds in creation, which all reveal His glory. Consider His redemptive work, love, mercy, and grace, and continue to trust in His goodness.

Weigh them carefully and know you have not misplaced your faith. Jesus is all the Bible says He is. Your situation cannot change Him. He still loves and cares for you (Romans 8:28), though He frustrates you. Do not fall away on account of His seeming desertion.

What God uses your life to do and His testimony about your steadfastness are what matters, not how your situation ends.

Give Him glory and praise Him in your midnight hour, like Paul and Silas did (Acts 16:25).