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PRAYER:

God, I’m grateful that even when I don’t understand what you are doing, you have a plan and and I trust you.

READING:

When God Is Late – Part 3

Today we finish our story about Lazarus. He is dead and in the tomb and Jesus has finally arrived in Bethany. Martha has asked Jesus why he didn’t come when Lazarus was sick. 

Now Mary comes and has basically the same conversation with Jesus. When he sees her emotion, he’s deeply moved. 

When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who had come along with her also weeping, he was deeply moved in spirit and troubled. “Where have you laid him?” he asked. “Come and see, Lord,” they replied. – John 11:33–34

Then John records something that helps us understand: When you’re going through the most difficult times of your life, God isn’t distant. He has the ability to enter into your deepest pain. 

Jesus wept. – John 11:35

When you’re suffering, it’s as if God leans into your world and says, I know.

Then the Jews said, “See how he loved him!” But some of them said, “Could not he who opened the eyes of the blind man have kept this man from dying?” – John 11:36–37

Why didn’t he do something about that? 

Jesus, once more deeply moved, came to the tomb. It was a cave with a stone laid across the entrance. “Take away the stone,” he said. – John 11:38–39

They weren’t expecting this. Lazarus was dead. 

“Take away the stone,” he said. “But, Lord,” said Martha, the sister of the dead man, “by this time there is a bad odor, for he has been there four days.” – John 11:39

Jesus said to her, and he says to you and me: 

“Did I not tell you that if you believe, you will see the glory of God?” – John 11:40

If you continue to put one foot in front of the other, if you continue to live your life as if Jesus is who he says he is, you will catch a glimpse of his glory, even in your most difficult times. 

So they took away the stone. Then Jesus looked up and said, “Father, I thank you that you have heard me. I knew that you always hear me, but I said this for the benefit of the people standing here, that they may believe that you sent me.” – John 11:41–42

It was worth all of the pain for people to understand Jesus’s connection to God.

When he had said this, Jesus called in a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out!” The dead man came out, his hands and feet wrapped with strips of linen, and a cloth around his face. Jesus said to them, “Take off the grave clothes and let him go.” Therefore many of the Jews who had come to visit Mary, and had seen what Jesus did, put their faith in him. – John 11:43–45

So why doesn’t God always do something in our difficult situations? Sometimes we don’t know why. But because of that day in Bethany, we know he can. We know sometimes he waits. And we know we can trust him in the meantime.

If you continue to trust God in the midst of your difficult situations, he is able and willing to leverage those for his glory and for your good. This is what God has given us to hang onto in the midst of dark times. It was the candle that he handed the disciples. And it has been the hope and the message of the church ever since.

REFLECTION:

When God seems inattentive, look at what he is doing beyond your world. When God seems uncooperative, lean into his grace. And when you feel like God is late, look for his glory,  because if you believe, you will eventually see the glory of God.  

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