As a pastor paced the floor, his wife asked him why he was upset. He answered, “I am in a hurry and God is not.” What have you asked from God that you did not receive? If we pray long enough, we will discover that God does not always give us exactly what we ask from him. Why is this so? We believe God loves us. Why doesn’t he give us what we desire?
When Lazarus became ill in Bethany, Martha and Mary reached out to Jesus and told him that the one he loved was sick. Jesus acknowledged their request but did not go to them. During the interim, Lazarus died. When Jesus and his disciples finally arrived, Martha and Mary had questions. Why had Jesus delayed? “Lord, if you had been here, our brother would not have died,” said each sister in turn. They were right. Jesus had finally come, but in the minds of Lazarus’s sisters, he was too late. Still, Martha held out hope, “Even now God will give you what you ask.”
Martha believed her brother would rise again in the resurrection. Jesus answered, “I am the resurrection and the life.” Even when we don’t know why God seems to delay, he always knows who he is. In our crises of faith, he invites us to know who he is and to believe. God is not on our timetable. But he is right on time. As Martha and Mary trusted Jesus he raised their brother back to life.
There is no easy explanation for our suffering. Like the two sisters, we continue to talk to God and wait for his answers. All that we know about God makes us trust him for what we do not understand. Nothing is impossible with God. We know this: that Jesus who prayed that day is interceding for us right now at the right hand of the Father. Jesus will get for us what the Father always wanted us to have. Do you believe this? I do.
