Watercolor Wednesday: At the grave of Lazarus

One of the best things about immersing myself in a writing project is how much I learn in the midst of the research. Lately I’ve been working on a short book for small groups on the prayers of Jesus for Lent next year. There are seven recorded prayers of Jesus, and we look at six of them. One, you may recall, is the prayer that Jesus prays at the grave of Lazarus. It’s a prayer of thanksgiving – of faith – and not of petition. Jesus thanks the Father for always hearing him.

Sometimes we simply don’t have enough faith to know that God has heard our prayer, but we can ask him to give us the faith to believe. At other times, we need faith even to pray.

Whatever our needs, I believe we can approach our loving God, who hears our prayers. I hope you believe that too.

I hope you enjoy this painting that my dad created for me, for some talks I will be doing on Mary, Martha, and Lazarus! Isn’t it wonderful?