September 24, 2024 Devo

Imagine with me for a moment Jesus calling Lazarus out of the grave. But instead of Lazarus walking out of his tomb and into the sunlight again, picture him saying, “No, I want to stay in here! I like the dark. I like having no responsibility. I like not being bothered. Thanks for the offer, but I think I’ll stay!” As crazy as it sounds, it’s not that far-fetched.
Every once in a while, you hear a story about someone who is in prison and about to be released, but they don’t want to be. Prison is what they know. Prison is what they understand. In prison, they don’t have to worry about where they’re going to sleep or what they’re going to eat. Leaving prison can mean dealing with the fear of going back to people that they don’t want to see. It can mean the fear of failing again, committing a crime again, or becoming addicted again. It may be hard for you to believe, but for many people, prison seems like a better life than being free.
I’ll bet some of you reading this can relate to this. Some of you are in a toxic relationship with someone that you KNOW you should break away from. You not only know it in your heart, you’ve heard God calling you out for a while now. Though you know you should obey, you stay. Somehow the chaos of being IN this unhealthy mess feels better than what you think it might feel like to be alone. You won’t be alone, of course, but it FEELS that way. God says, “Come out!” But you stay.
Some of us are caught in addictions we know we need to break. We’ve heard God calling us out, but the fear of admitting our addiction and going to rehab or recovery is scarier than what we know the addiction is doing to our lives. So we stay. Some of us have horrible attitudes that we know we need to overcome. Some of us have sins we know we need to stop. Some of us have character flaws that are keeping us from becoming the people we know God wants us to be. We’ve even come to the edge of our cave flirting with the idea of change. But fear sets in, insecurity sets in, lack of belief in ourselves and what God can do sets in, and we retreat into our tombs. For many people, an “almost resurrection” is a repeated experience.
It’s time to live. It’s time to get out. It’s time to rise up, find the courage, find the faith, and claim the life God has for you. You’ve been dead long enough. You can live a new life. You can be FREE. “Come out!” That’s God’s Word for you today.