Can I be honest about something today? Sometimes I just don’t get God.
I don’t get Him because He is Almighty and Sovereign.
He has the power to do absolutely anything in the world.
He can answer the prayer you have been praying for years in a millisecond and yet He doesn’t.
He deliberately chooses not to.
It’s not that He doesn’t hear you.
It’s not that He doesn’t care about you.
It’s not that He wants your future to be bleak and hopeless.
No… He has great plans for your life.
And yet even when you are down on your knees crying out for answers, for healing, for an open door, and for a breakthrough He remains silent.
This is something Mary and Martha knew too well.
Their brother Lazarus had gotten sick so they immediately sent Jesus word to come and heal him.
They knew all it would take is one word from Him and their brother would be up and walking again.
But when word got to Jesus that they were seeking His help do you know what He did? He stayed where He was for two days. (John 11:6)
And that’s what makes no sense to me.
If one of my best friends was dying in a hospital bed and I had the power to do something to heal her I wouldn’t waste a single second in getting to her.
I would quit all my plans and jump on the first plane, train, boat, or car to get to her.
But that’s not what Jesus did.
From the human perspective I would look at that and say “well, Jesus doesn’t really care all that much about Lazarus” but that’s not true.
It says in John 11:5 that He loved Lazarus, and not only that but later when He does come to see him He weeps along with Martha and Mary about his death. (John 11:35)
And yet He chose to wait.
Why? Because He already knew that Lazarus would die and it would give Him an opportunity to perform the unimaginable: raise Him back to life.
Sometimes I think God does the same in each one of our lives.
We cry out to Him for help and He deliberately chooses to wait.
He chooses to wait until like Mary and Martha we find ourselves hopeless and helpless wondering how our beloved friend can leave us hanging when we need Him most.
How the God of the universe who has the power to change our circumstances with just one word can choose to seemingly ignore us.
We want our healing, our open door, our answered prayer right now, just like Mary and Martha wanted for Lazarus.
And it would have been good for Jesus to have dropped everything He was doing to run to Lazarus and heal him as fast as He could.
But it was so much better for Him to wait.
Because if Jesus came right away Lazarus would have had a testimony of a healing.
But if Jesus waited as He did then he would have a testimony of resurrection.
And getting raised from the dead is just a little bit more of a bigger deal than getting healed.
I don’t know what you are waiting on today.
Which door is still closed in your life and what prayer remains unanswered,
But I DO know that we have an all powerful Almighty Father in heaven for whom nothing is impossible.
I DO know that if God is making us wait it’s not in vain.
Just because you didn’t get the opportunity you were hoping for doesn’t mean you never will.
You will when the time is right according to God.
And when you do you will have a testimony like Lazarus did that because God waited on giving you the answer to your prayers your testimony of His faithfulness will be even greater than if He gave you what you asked you for today.
Sometimes the period of waiting that makes no sense to us is just a huge blessing in disguise waiting to be discovered.
Sometimes the only reason God holds out on giving us what we want today because He has something even better planned for us tomorrow. I think this quote from Mandy Hale’s most recent book sums it up perfectly.
“We paint an idea of what our lives are going to look like in our minds and the reality very rarely matches up with the fantasy. You don’t get the job you wanted because God knows that you were never meant for a cubicle even though you don’t realize it. You don’t get the relationship you wanted because you have a destiny so special and beyond anything you could have ever imagined for yourself that a relationship before its time would only distract you from fulfilling it. You get discouraged because you’re human, and fallible, and sometimes you need those down moments to reset, regroup, and prepare for the up moments. You don’t get everything you think is so vital to your existence because God longs for you not to just see but truly grasp that all you really need in this life is Him.
Today I challenge you to set aside any deadlines or expiration dates you have given God to answer your prayer for when you’ll get that job, that opportunity, that healing, that husband or wife.
Jesus’ answer to Martha and Mary came way past the deadline they would have given Him.
And yet He still came to them right on time.
On time for the greatest miracle to happen.
And He will come right on time for you too.
If His answer is still “wait” today then trust that there is something better in store for you tomorrow than if He gave you what you desire today.
Mary and Martha would have told you that Jesus coming was worth the wait.
That He came at exactly the right time even though they thought He already came too late.
That He did it out of genuine love for them, as He does for you.
Know that if God is holding something back from you today it’s only for your own good.
Trust Him in your waiting and He’ll be faithful in coming through for you.
Be blessed and continue praying and trusting in God’s faithfulness to answer you at the right time during your season of waiting. -Anna… ♥
Reblogged this on Hodgepodge 4 the Soul™ and commented:
Ran across another gem this morning. Hope it touches YOU, as much as it touched me. 😀 Thanks you http://daughterbydesign.wordpress.com/ for being such an inspiration and blessing. 😀
Thank you for this timely water for a dry soul. It has refreshed me. May God continue to remind us both in our seasons of waiting that He loves is infinitely more than we dared hope or imagine.
I’m glad this was encouraging to you Annie! Yes, God does love us with a love that I’ll never be able to comprehend. It’s knowing and believing in His love that helps me trust Him in my waiting seasons because I know everything is in His hands. May you continue to walk strong in faith and be filled with joy daily because of the great love that God has for you. Have a blessed week!
Praise God! The message I needed to hear today. “And getting raised from the dead is just a little bit more of a bigger deal than getting healed.” I am waiting on the Lord for many things, healing, open doors, etc. You remind me that waiting for Him is so much better than getting what I want right away. Thanks, Anna! I get Mandy’s blog posts in my emails but I haven’t read any of her books yet. I am itching to read “I’ve Never Been to Vegas But My Luggage Has”. Love the title!! Blessings!!
You should definitely read her latest book. It’s different than her first one because it’s more of a biography/testimony of her life and everything she went through (and how it brought her to being “The Single Woman”) I was really encouraged by it! 🙂 And waiting on God IS always better than anything we can try to make happen on our own! He knows just the right time to open doors and we should never give up knocking on them and praying for them to open up! 🙂 Thanks for stopping by. Have a blessed week!
Well, you’ve sold me! I will get her latest book. Thanks, Anna!! You have a blessed week too. 🙂
Reblogged this on Clearing Out The Rubble and commented:
I don’t usually post this early, but this spoke directly to me. It is so timely to where I am right now in my life. Please read this post, give some love to an amazing writer, and be blessed by it.
Until next time…
Exactly what I’m going through, Anna! <3 I have been hearing Him tell me for days to be still and trust. I keep worrying and desperately trying to take everything in my own hands. I know it's best to wait on Him, but everything around me feels like a push to hurry up. It's been making me so tired and heavy. I don't know how to let everything go and spend time to with God, like I need to.
Hi Julia, every time I try to take things into my own hands I am reminded of the story of Abraham and Sarah and how she just couldn’t wait any longer for the promised child to come so she took it into her own hands and had Hagar have the child (that she later despised) to make it “happen” in her own way. And in the end that’s exactly the opposite that God wanted. He wanted her to continue to trust Him for a miracle even when her body was getting too old to bear children and I’m sure everyone around her had already given up (including her). It’s during these moments when we feel like what we are asking for is impossible that we need to trust Him most and be careful not to make things happen on our own. God always hears our prayers and even though in our eyes He may seem slow to answer, He is always on time for the plan He has for us! Never give up on your prayers during your time of waiting! God is faithful and He will answer at the right time. ♥
That was God totally speaking to my right there! I really needed to hear that 🙂 Thank you for alwaye taking thr time to respond to my unraveling heart. I found that email you sent many months ago, when you wrote a post about prayer requests. I’m going to email you tosay about how things are going ❤️
Amen, Anna. I think we all have good things we’re longing for, and our Good God will give us bread (not stones) when the time is right. Trusting and believing along with you.
Blessings ~ Wendy ❀
Amen Wendy! God never leaves His children hanging when they trust Him for something. May you continue to stay strong in faith during your time of waiting! Have a blessed week!
I read this story in my quiet time but i got nothing from it. Familiarity blinded me from seeing what God wanted me to see but thank God for second chances!!
At times “there are things you read that you need to hear that you don’t realise you need to hear”, if that makes sense!! 😄 This is one of those times. I needed to hear this without even knowing I needed it!
Especially the part you spoke about Lazarus having a testimony of healing if Jesus came to his rescue straight away but because Jesus waited his testimony was one of resurrection!!!! That spoke to me so deeply! A very powerful post Anna!
Have a great weekend…..
Rolain
Thanks Rolain! Yes, sometimes you can get so many different insights from just one story. The resurrection of Lazarus’s is one of my favorites because it’s proof that our God always shows up on time even if we think He’s too late! We are so blessed to have the Bible which is filled with so many stories of God’s faithfulness to His children to be encouraged by! 🙂
Amen!
Reblogged this on you make me brave.
Amen Anna. Good word! As it’s been said, God withholds in His love and wisdom what He could easily do in His power. And it’s usually because He’s more about process and relationship than about the outcome. We are naturally the opposite with God. We pray for outcome instead of process. So we have to learn this in the process with God. This is what prayer does. And learning trust builds intimacy. And when this happens, it doesn’t really matter when we get the outcome because we’ve drawn so close to Jesus in the process! 🙂
Blessings.
Thank you Mel. Yes, the outcome is great but it’s who we become in the process that is even greater. So many men and women from the Bible were waiting for an outcome (Abraham for the promised child, David to become king after the prophecy that he would be king, Joseph for his dreams to come true…) and it was through the long waiting period that God allowed them to be in that their characters were built and their trust in God was established as they relied on Him to keep His promises for them. In the end our waiting times only make us stronger and prepare us for what is to come and when we think about it from that perspective it helps us complain less and believe God more for His plans for us. 🙂 Hope you have a blessed week!
GREAT revelation!!
Thank u for the timely message once again! It speaks so much to me! Love this “Because if Jesus came right away Lazarus would have had a testimony of a healing.
But if Jesus waited as He did then he would have a testimony of resurrection.”
Surely God waited so as to give us a greater testimony of His Love and Faithfulness that His Glory will be revealed through this period of waiting.
God bless you and your ministry abundantly! ♡
Yes and amen! God’s “silence” to our prayers is sometimes a greatest blessing to us than if He answered them right away. He is always faithful in answering at the right time so that we can have an amazing testimony to share of His perfect timing and His goodness toward us. 🙂 I hope you have a wonderful week!
I love this post, it definitely encouraged me because I currently feel like I am in a season where nothing but bad things have happened. I am currently almost at an ending point but God told me to rest. Once I surrendered all, my prayers that I had been relentlessly praying for, for months, finally were answered in such an amazing way.
I also thoroughly enjoy reading your blog, it has been an encouragement to me and my walk with God. Keep doing what you are doing, God is very pleased with you!
Blessings.
Thank you Katheryn! What a beautiful testimony of God’s faithfulness in your life! Thank you so much for sharing it. It’s hearing stories like yours that encourage the rest of us to never give up on hoping and praying for those things that seem to never come! 🙂 I’m glad He came through for you at just the right time.
It was a big encouragement to be reminded about God waiting on requests.
Same for me
AMEN!!