Day 1: He Showed Up
John 11:33-35 When Jesus saw her crying, and the Jews who had come with her crying, he was deeply moved in his spirit and troubled. “Where have you put him?” he asked. “Lord,” they told him, “come and see.” Jesus wept.
You know the difference between the friend who texts “let me know if you need anything” and the friend who shows up and says, “I’m not leaving.” One is a sentiment, but the other is a presence. When your heart is breaking, you need something more than a slogan– you need someone close.
Look at what Jesus did. He didn’t send word from a safe distance. Instead, He came to the place of death and stood at the tomb of His friend. And the God of the universe, the One who flung the stars into being, stood there and cried.
Think about this: Why would Jesus weep when He knew He was about to raise Lazarus? He wept because He refuses to be far from your pain. He is present with you in it– your grief does not make Him uncomfortable.
So why do we keep performing? Why do we clean up our faces before Sunday and pretend the wound isn’t there? Jesus did not ask Martha or Mary to grieve correctly before He met them. He received the one who questioned and the one who collapsed at His feet. And He receives you with your tears, questions, anger, and broken heart.
You do not have to have the right words– you just have to come.. He is right here, and His arms are open.
Prayer: Father, thank You that Jesus is not distant when I’m hurting. Help me lean on Your presence today. Amen.
Day 2: The God Who Says “I Am”
John 11:25-26 Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me, even if he dies, will live. Everyone who lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?”
“If you had been here.” That was Martha’s complaint. Underneath the respect was an accusation: You were too far away when I needed You most. You missed the window.
Have you ever talked to God like that? You think if only He had stepped in sooner, before the diagnosis, before the marriage ended, before the call came. You believe He is powerful in general, but you just are not sure His power reaches the thing that has already gone cold in your life.
Martha thought Jesus’s help depended on His proximity, as if the One who spoke galaxies into existence could be held back by a two-mile walk. So Jesus answered her grief with two words: “I am.”
He didn’t say, “I was” or “I will be”. Jesus claims, “I am the resurrection and the life.” In the middle of her tragedy and her questioning, Jesus gave her Himself.
Jesus is never as far from you as your pain makes you feel.
So worship Him today. No matter your situation, worship Him because the great I Am is present with you right now.
Prayer: Father, thank You for being with me all the time. Remind me today that You are never late. Help me trust Your timing. In Jesus’s name, amen.
Day 3: He Walks Toward the Grave
John 11:39-40 Jesus said, “Remove the stone.” Martha, the dead man’s sister, told him, “Lord, there is already a stench because he has been dead four days.” Jesus said to her, “Didn’t I tell you that if you believed you would see the glory of God?”
One of the most encouraging thing about Jesus is that He is with us no matter what is happening. In these verses, Jesus walks up to the tomb. The One with power over death gets close to the decay, close to the smell, close to the place everyone else feared to go. Though we might expect Him to stand at a distance, He doesn’t.
Friend, that is who He is. He comes close to change your life.
He does not yell at Martha for her doubt. Instead, He redirects her. “Didn’t I tell you that if you believed you would see the glory of God?” It’s like He says, “I didn’t bring you out here to mourn. I brought you out here to watch.”
So why do we keep treating Jesus like a God of generalities? We believe He can do great things somewhere, someday. But the dead thing in front of us feels like the exception. That’s not true– Jesus comes close to change it.
Worship Him today as the God who does not flinch at what stinks. He moves toward the very thing you have written off.
Prayer: Father, I believe You can do anything. I give You my sin, my hopes, and my future today. Thank You for hearing me. In Jesus’s name, amen.
Day 4: Every Sad Thing Untrue
John 11:43-44 He shouted with a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out!” The dead man came out bound hand and foot. Jesus said to them, “Unwrap him and let him go.”
I wish I could tell you that because Jesus conquered the grave, every broken thing in your life will be fixed by next week. Like the prodigal home, the anxiety gone, or the body healed. I would love to tell you that but that is just not how it always goes, and pretending otherwise would be cruel.
But hear this. The fact that things are not fixed yet does not mean you have no hope.
Look at the tomb– there was a dead man, four days gone, wrapped head to toe, that shuffles into the light because the Son of God called his name. And notice where that voice came from. Not from heaven or from a distance. Jesus stood right there at the mouth of the grave. He conquers death up close.
That is the anchor underneath your hurt. Grief gets so intense your heart forgets what Jesus has already done. He defeated the grave for Lazarus, and He defeated it again when He walked out of His own tomb. That is not wishful thinking, but history.
And because that grave is empty, you can know this: Every wrong will be made right, every hurt will be healed, and every sad thing will come untrue when Jesus sets all things right
Things will not always be this way. Jesus will fix it all one day that is not far off. He is with you in the hurt right now.
Worship Him today. Lift your eyes off the pain and remember the empty tomb.
Prayer: Father, remind me that the empty tomb gives me hope. I need it today. Amen.
Day 5: He Doesn’t Need You to Grieve Correctly
John 11:32 As soon as Mary came to where Jesus was and saw him, she fell at his feet and told him, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother wouldn’t have died!”
These two sisters had the same loss and even spoke the same sentence. Martha stood and talked it through. Mary fell at His feet and could barely get the words out. One of the sisters processed with arguments, while the other processed with tears on the ground.
Here’s what we see: Jesus did not turn either one away. He did not tell Martha she was too analytical or tell Mary she was too emotional. He received the one who questioned, and He received the one who collapsed.
So why do you think you have to clean yourself up first?
Some of you grieve like Martha– you need to talk it out and ask the hard questions, even the ones aimed at God. Some of you grieve like Mary– you have no words left, all you can do is sink to the floor. And somewhere in you is the lie that one of those ways is acceptable to Jesus and the other is not. That you have to grieve the right way before He will come close.
He doesn’t require that, and He never has. The God who stood at that tomb is not running a quality check on your sorrow before He decides whether to draw near. He comes near because He is near– that is who He is.
Right now, you can bring Him your hard questions, silent tears, honest anger, and empty hands.
Worship Him today as the Savior who meets the questioner and the weeper with the same open arms.
Prayer: Father, thank You that You are near in my grief. When I grieve, help me to run to You. In the name of Jesus, amen.
Day 6: Near to the Brokenhearted
Psalm 34:18 The Lord is near the brokenhearted; he saves those crushed in spirit.
There is a particular loneliness to a broken heart. I’ve felt it before: A room can be full of people and you still feel like you are standing behind glass. Everyone else seems to be living in color while you are stuck in a gray that nobody else can see. And in that fog, you think: God has moved on. He is near the people whose lives are working but not me, not now.
Read the verse again. The Lord is near the brokenhearted. It’s not near the put-together or the ones with strong devotional lives and tidy emotions. God is near the broken. He saves those crushed in spirit.
God doesn’t say He is near the brokenhearted once they cheer up. Or that He waits at a distance until you climb back to a respectable level of faith. The brokenness itself is the address He moves toward.
So why do we assume the opposite? Why do we believe our lowest moment is the one where God is most absent? It is the exact opposite of the truth! The crushing is not evidence He left. It is the place He draws closest.
Hear this honestly: Being near you does not always mean He removes the thing crushing you this week. Nearness and rescue are not always the same morning. But the One who is near is the same One who saves, and He has never lost a single person He drew close to.
So enjoy His nearness today.
Prayer: God, You know when I’m brokenhearted. Help me feel that You are close when that happens. In Jesus’s name, amen.
Day 7: He Came to the Stench
John 11:38 Then Jesus, deeply moved again, came to the tomb. It was a cave, and a stone was lying against it.
Read that verse slowly and you’ll see something– He came to the tomb. The One with all power over death walked toward the place of death. He did not stay at a safe distance and send the miracle ahead of Him like a package. He went where the body was, where the smell was, and where everyone else was backing away.
That is the whole heart of God toward you.
We tend to imagine that holiness keeps Jesus at arm’s length from our mess. You know, like He hovers somewhere clean, waiting for us to get presentable. So when there is something in your life that has been rotting for years, something you would never say out loud, you assume He keeps His distance from that part of you.
But look at where His feet are– at the mouth of a four-day grave. He is deeply moved, and instead of recoiling, He steps closer.
Do you believe that? Not in theory, but with the addiction, or the bitterness you have nursed, or the shame you have buried deep. He does not stand across the yard from that and shout instructions. He walks to it.
What stops us is the belief that He is too holy to come near what we are. The truth is His holiness is exactly why He can. Nothing in your life or your tomb overwhelms Him.
He is close– run to Him!
Prayer: Father, I know that You are near. Thank You for not staying away because of my sin. Help me confess it to You today. In the name of Jesus, amen.