"Therefore the sisters sent to Him, saying, 'Lord, behold, he whom You love is sick'. (4) 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"
John 11:3 - 16. NKJV
Why didn't Jesus go to Lazarus' home immediately? The sister's plea to Him had been urgent enough, but He remained where He was for a further two days. The reason was, Jesus knew the outcome; He knew what He had to do and He knew what He would do. He was in total control of the situation. He told His disciples (in verse 14-15) 'Lazarus is dead, (15) and I am glad for your sakes that I was not there, that you may believe.' He wanted to mature their faith; to teach them; in fact, to grow their faith even deeper. And He wants to do that with us too.
The disciples thought this was extremely strange, they couldn't make sense of it and it was agonising for Mary and Martha, who were waiting anxiously for Him to come. Jesus responded this way, three times in the Gospel of John. Firstly in this text; then The Wedding at Cana John 2:1-11 and finally in John 7:1-10, when His brothers were urging Him to go to the Feast of Tabernacles and He refused to go with them. Each time, someone dear to His life and He seemingly wouldn't do what they asked, or delayed the process.
You see, Jesus knows the end result, He knows what He is going to do. On on all of these occasions, His refusal to grant their requests was to show them that He does things according to the timing and will of God, not man.
This really explains those times when we are pleading with Him to help us and nothing appears to happen. He hears us the first time we ask Him to help us and His great love and compassion for us, goes into action there and then, However, because He can see things that we can't; because He knows the future and the way ahead, He masterminds the way forward for us. Many is the time when we want to steam ahead, dashing into blindness. And many times, this is where we get it wrong. Jesus has all the answers. He knows what He is going to do and will perform it at the given time.
So relax. Stop thinking that He hasn't heard your prayers. Stop thinking that He isn't interested, because you're so wrong if you think that way. He adores you!
Copyright 2020 Grahame Howard
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