Day 11

“I dislike being late.”

It is embarrassing being late. People are waiting on you or you interrupt someone speaking. You cannot just slip in unnoticed. Invariably you will do something in your entrance that will make things worse!

Even worse, I dislike having to wait when someone else is late. You know the too familiar story. You have an appointment at 9:00 and finally see someone at 9:45. Frustrating, annoying, irritating and infuriating.

How do you respond to God when you believe He is late? You feel He is late in answering a prayer. You do not understand why He is allowing your negative situation to continue. Your prayer is not selfish. You may be praying for someone else. But it simply seems that God is late! There is a great life event where everyone thought Jesus was late!

Matthew 11 (CSB) Now a man was sick, Lazarus from Bethany, the village of Mary and her sister Martha. 2Mary was the one who anointed the Lord with perfume and wiped his feet with her hair, and it was her brother Lazarus who was sick. 3So the sisters sent a message to him: “Lord, the one you love is sick.” 4When Jesus heard it, he said, “This sickness will not end in death but is for the glory of God, so that the Son of God may be glorified through it.” … 6So when he heard that he was sick, he stayed two more days in the place where he was. … 17When Jesus arrived, He found that Lazarus had already been in the tomb four days. … 20As soon as Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went to meet him, but Mary remained seated in the house. 21Then Martha said to Jesus, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother wouldn’t have died. …28…, she went back and called her sister Mary, saying in private, “The Teacher is here and is calling for you.” 29As soon as Mary heard this, she got up quickly and went to him. …32As soon as Mary came to where Jesus was and saw him, she fell at his feet and told him, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother wouldn’t have died!” … 37 But some of them said, “Couldn’t he who opened the blind man’s eyes also have kept this man from dying?” 38Then Jesus, deeply moved again, came to the tomb. It was a cave, and a stone was lying against it. 39“Remove the stone,” Jesus said. Martha, the dead man’s sister, told him, “Lord, there is already a stench because he has been dead four days.” 40Jesus said to her, “Didn’t I tell you that if you believed you would see the glory of God?”… 43After he said this, he shouted with a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out!” 44The dead man came out bound hand and foot with linen strips and with his face wrapped in a cloth. Jesus said to them, “Unwrap him and let him go.
                                                     [Matthew 11 was edited for brevity. Please read entire chapter.]
As the song writer put it, “When He is 4 days late, He is still right on time!”

Do you feel God is late answering your prayer? Do not give up! When the enemy tells you God is not listening to you. The enemy is a liar. You are loved by God. Please do not quit! Martha and Mary’s prayer was answered! Jesus was there and their brother is alive. Jesus answered their prayer is a way they did not expect. God was glorified. Jesus answered in a time frame they had not imagined. God was glorified. Jesus will answer your prayer in a way you do did not expect and in the time you did not imagine. God will be glorified!
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