His Timing Is Best
“So when he heard that Lazarus was sick, he stayed where he was two more days,”
Do you hate waiting?
Have you heard the story of Jesus at the tomb of Lazarus?
It’s an incredible story of how Jesus comes to the home of Mary and Martha, Lazarus’ sisters, who are weeping over the death of their brother. Jesus promises Mary and Martha that their brother will rise again. He then walks over to the tomb of Lazarus and commands the dead man to “come out” of the tomb. To everyone’s amazement, Lazarus gets up and walks out of the tomb, grave clothes and all. He literally brings Lazarus back to life after him being dead for four days.
But something important happens before this, John actually explains the context for what happens at the start of the chapter,
“Now a man named Lazarus was sick. He was from Bethany, the village of Mary and her sister Martha… So the sisters sent word to Jesus, “Lord, the one you love is sick.”” - John 11:1 and 3
Jesus is told about the sickness of his dear friend and their family, but look at how he responds,
“Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus. So when he heard that Lazarus was sick, he stayed where he was two more days,” - John 11:5-6
He doesn’t rush off, in fact, he does the opposite, he waits.
We want our timing.
My wife and I love to travel so a couple of years ago we bought ourselves something called TSA Pre-check. What this allowed us to do was to effectively “skip” the hassle in the TSA screening line at the airport and go through a separate quicker line. As someone who doesn’t generally like waiting, I loved this! Getting through the line quicker was amazing, however, on one trip I was flagged as a randomized search and had to go through the regular longer wait line.
Do you hate waiting? I generally don’t think of myself as an impatient person but when I have to wait for something I wasn’t expecting to wait for I find myself getting frustrated. Most people I know hate waiting. We hate waiting at the DMV. We hate waiting at the airport. We hate waiting. In his book, Oh the places you’ll go! Dr. Seuss describes the people located in what he calls “the waiting place”. It’s full of people who are…
“Waiting for a train to go, or a bus to come, or a plane to go or the mail to come, or the rain to go, or the phone to ring, or the snow to snow, or waiting around for a yes or a no, or waiting for their hair to grow. Everyone is just waiting!”
The reality is, we want everything to happen on our timing. We want our food to be ready when we want it to be ready. We want our Amazon deliveries to arrive the next day or better yet the same day we order it. We get angry when the gift doesn’t arrive on time for Christmas. We get frustrated when the traffic is busy over the weekend.
So we can understand when Martha responds to Jesus’ arrival by saying,
“”Lord,” Martha said to Jesus, “If you had been here, my brother would not have died.”” - John 11:21
Have you ever had a prayer like that? God, if you had been there, I wouldn’t have gotten sick. God, if you had been there, I wouldn’t have lost that opportunity. God, if you had been there, I wouldn’t be in this mess right now. We think we see the whole story but the truth is we have a limited view of our story.
Trust in his timing.
We believe that God knows and sees all. He knows your circumstances better than you. When Jesus hears Lazarus is sick he declares,
“This sickness will not end in death. No, it is for God’s glory so that God’s son may be glorified through it.” - John 11:4b
Jesus, knowing that resurrection for Lazarus was around the corner, stayed where he was for two more days. God knows our circumstances better than we do. He is a good and loving father, who has a plan and purpose for your life. When you trust his timing it changes your viewpoint. Waiting isn’t comfortable, but I hope I can encourage you to know that God’s “not yet” is so much better than an early “yes.”
His timing is better than mine. I can honestly tell you that I am thankful to trust God in his timing because his grace and mercy faithfully appeared at just the right time in my life to produce lasting change. If it had been up to me, I would have gotten into the relationship too early. If it had been up to me, the discipline God needed to bring me would have come too late, or maybe not at all! If it had been up to me, I would mess it up.
What I know is this, I can be faithful with my obedience and diligence and trust him with the timing and the results. Trust God with your schedule, trust him with the timing. If he says wait, then wait with the comfort and assurance that God has a better plan and purpose for your life and eternity than anything you can come up with!
