February 26

The blind receive sight, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the good news is preached to the poor. — Matt 11:5 BSB

“The dead are raised up.” These “dead” are those who by nature are dead in sin. They are raised up when God’s life-giving power visits their souls. They are raised up to faith in Jesus, raised up to hope in His name, raised up to a sense of His dying love, raised up from doubt and fear, and raised up from the depths of despair to look unto Him and be saved. What a mercy it is that the Lord of life and glory still exercises the same power in the hearts of His people that He once did in their physical bodies, raising them from spiritual death to life!

How often do we feel so dead, as if there isn’t a trace of God’s grace in us? So dead, it seems impossible to feel any spiritual life again? So dead, we begin to doubt whether we ever truly experienced God’s power in our hearts? Yet the Lord raises life within us, just as He called Lazarus from the tomb. Every upward lifting of the heart toward Him, every desire to know Him, every affection, sigh, cry, and groan toward Him is proof that the Lord of life and glory is still putting forth His power in the hearts of His people.