Why Jesus Waits to Answer Your Prayer

As much as we wish it were otherwise, life has no easy answers to our struggles. Oh, I know, I know . . . God is the Answer. But what happens when the Answer doesn’t answer?

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Because God can stop our pain, we think He should. So we pray. And pray.

But nothing happens.

That’s what occurred with Mary and Martha. They sent a message to Jesus that their brother Lazarus lay sick. But instead of immediately traveling to Bethany, Jesus stayed right where He was beyond the Jordan River. When He finally did arrive, Lazarus had been dead four days.

In other words, Jesus had taken His sweet time showing up.

From what happened next, I see 3 lessons to help us understand why Jesus waits to answer our prayer.

What We Want from Jesus

“Lord, if You had been here,” Martha cried, “my brother would not have died” (John 11:21). When Mary later approached Jesus, she fell at His feet and echoed Martha’s grief, word for word, through bitter tears (John 11:32).

• The sisters’ words revealed their faith in Jesus’ ability.
• But they also reveal their disappointment in His delay.

Their assumption? Because Jesus could have saved Lazarus, He should have. Pain often tempts us to view Jesus this way. We have pain and prayer should solve it.

Immediately.

But it wasn’t Jesus’ lack of concern that caused His delay. This Bible reveals that the exact opposite is true. He waited because of His love for the sisters and for Lazarus (see John 11:5-6).

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What Jesus Wants for Us

As hard as we try, wrapping our minds around that seeming contradiction is still a struggle.

After all, it’s hard to feel God’s love when we’ve cried out to Him, perhaps for years, and He seems to ignore us. Our pain blurs what Jesus sees clearly.

Because Jesus waits to answer your prayer, you know He wants to give you more than relief. (Tweet that.)

Jesus saw what Mary and Martha couldn’t see through the jumble of their pain and prayer.

• He knew what Lazarus’s death would produce—an opportunity for nonbelievers to witness a miracle.
• Jesus knew that Mary and Martha would grow to understand that God loved them on a level that went deeper than simply removing their pain and answering their shortsighted request.

Those lessons apply to you as well.

3 Reasons Why Jesus Waits to Answer Your Prayer

1. Because Jesus waits to answer your prayer, you know He wants to give you more than relief.
2. Because Jesus wept, you can know He feels your pain, strengthening you with His presence along the path He in His sovereign will sees as best for you.
3. He loves you enough to delay the answer and even to let you hurt—so that you will gain what you could not otherwise.

Jesus walks with you—and weeps—along the painful road that leads to death . . . but also to resurrection.

Tell me what you think: How do you deal with God’s delay in answering prayer? To leave a comment, just click here.

Adapted from Wayne Stiles, “Mary and Martha: Waiting and Wondering,” The Wise and the Wild: 30 Devotions on Women of the Bible (IFL Publishing House: Plano, TX, 2010), 91-92.