When [Jesus] heard that Lazarus was sick, he stayed where he was two more days.
JOHN 11:6
In today’s fast paced world of drive through dining, same-day Amazon delivery and online grocery shopping, we’ve lost the art of waiting. If you ask any child, they rank the words not yet as nearly the most awful in the English language, second only to the word no. Children don’t like to hear the answer, “Not yet.”
When our wise, loving heavenly Father deems it best to say, “Not yet,” what is our mature adult response? Often, it’s no different than what we hear from our kids. If we are honest, we say, “But God, you don’t understand. I want it now.”
Imagine how much Mary and Martha wanted to hear, “I’ll be there without delay,” when they sent Jesus word of their dying brother Lazarus: “Lord, the one you love is sick” (John 11:3). But Jesus purposely delayed his coming. He was in essence saying, “Not yet.”
Was he callous about their pain? Hardly. About a week later, Jesus stood at Lazarus’s tomb and wept. He identified with their pain.
Mary and Martha were hurt and frustrated that Jesus had not responded to their request earlier. But Jesus wanted to do something greater than heal a sick man. He wanted to raise a dead man to life.
Often, when things come up in life, we want answers, immediate answers. Scripture tells us that, “God works for the good of those who love him” (Romans 8:28). Scripture doesn’t tell us that those good things will come in our timing. We must remember that God’s delays are not necessarily God’s denials. Timing is very important to God. A request may be in God’s will but not in his timing.
God has reasons for not answering our prayers at the moment. Sometimes the best answer we can receive is, “Not yet.”
PRAYER
Lord, help me to accept this “not yet” in my life …
Blessings,
Pastor Vic