Cairo: Jesus in Egypt & God's Unusual Leaning
God seldom gives us all we need to understand, but He always gives us what we need in order to obey. The story of Jesus in Egypt as a boy offers a...
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.
“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).
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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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.
Those lessons apply to you as well.
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.
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