Power Point - January 18, 2005

 

 

January 18, 2005

 

Now a certain man was sick, Lazarus of Bethany, the town of Mary and her sister Martha. It was that Mary who anointed the Lord with fragrant oil and wiped His feet with her hair, whose brother Lazarus was sick.

 

Therefore the sisters sent to Him saying, “Lord, behold, he whom You love is sick.”

 

When Jesus heard that, He said, “This sickness is not unto death, but for the glory of god, that the Son of God may be glorified through it.”

 

Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus. So, when He heard that he was sick, He stayed two more days in the place where He was.

-John 11:1-6

 

One day the great preacher of New England, Phillips Brooks, was pacing up and down in his study looking particularly agitated and anxious. Someone said to him, “Dr. Brooks, what’s wrong?”

 

Brooks replied, “It’s what is always wrong. I’m in a hurry and God isn’t.”

 

Have you ever felt like that? Have you ever been in a hurry and wondered where God was in it all? Maybe you have felt like that lady that I once heard of who prayed, “Lord give me patience…right now!”

 

Right now, we want things and we want them immediately. Sometimes in God’s plan and in His way with us, there are the dilemmas of delays, when it doesn’t seem that God comes through and when we look around and wonder where He is.

 

We may ask ourselves: Is God really involved in my life? Maybe we pray and it doesn’t seem that our prayers get above the ceiling and we are going to God with a great need, concern, or desire in our life and there seems to be no relief.

 

Isn’t it interesting that even though Christ loved Lazarus, Martha, and Mary very much, He delayed in coming to see Lazarus during his great sickness? Jesus deliberately delayed His coming.

 

And one can only imagine what the three siblings were thinking about Him during that time. Lazarus grew sicker and sicker and eventually died, leaving Mary and Martha wondering why Jesus didn’t come to save the day!

 

We can identify with that, can’t we? There have probably been times when you’ve prayed for healing for yourself or someone else, financial blessing, or for someone to come to Christ and nothing seemed to happen. What do you do when it seems that God isn’t coming through? You wait…because His timing is perfect.

 

Just because it doesn’t seem like your prayers are being answered, doesn’t mean that God isn’t in complete control of everything. Take heart, wait, and trust Him when you don’t have an answer or when prayers have been unanswered—He’s waiting for the perfect time to come through and show His sovereignty.

 

WHEN GOD DOESN’T SEEM TO COME THROUGH—

REJOICE IN THE LORD & HE’LL SURPRISE YOU WITH HIS PERFECT PLAN.