EXPECT IT TO GET WORSE BEFORE IT GETS BETTER – Part 1

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Are you like me…wanting and expecting Jesus to show up as an when I need Him.  I call or pray and voila!  He shows up; well, Jesus is not a magician and so He will show up when it is right and He will not be late.

Today, we are looking at the story of Lazarus from John 11.  Lazarus is very ill and his sisters knowing the Resurrection and Life send word to Him ‘Jesus’ and say that  John 11 So the sisters sent word to Jesus, “Lord, the one you love is sick.”

One of the sisters Mary, had poured perfume at Jesus’s feet and wiped it with her hair; she had given sacrificially to Jesus, now it was her hour of need and besides her brother Lazarus is one that Jesus loves.  Surely Jesus will come and heal the sick as he has done, is doing and will continue to do.  

Apostle Paul was going through some physical challenges and he sought God’s face three times to take the pain from him and in 2 Corin 12:9,” But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.”

Sometimes God does not answer when we want Him to, He does not appear when we ask Him to but one thing I can say is that He is never late and always on time.  In the story of Lazarus that we are looking at, Jesus delayed his stay where he was and did not go immediately to Judea.  John 11: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,and then he said to his disciples, “Let us go back to Judea.”

We are told of Jesus loved these three siblings and yet he delayed going to Judea.  Isaiah 55:8 states “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,” declares the Lord.  What manner of love is this?  A love that does not rush, when your loved one is in need?  It is the Jesus kind of love; the love of the Alpha and Omega; the love of He who sees beyond and into realms that I don’t see into.

What we don’t see God sees, what we don’t know, God knows.  So, the sisters wanted Jesus to come over because their brother Lazarus was sick onto death, but He delayed His coming.  Can you when Jesus delays His coming to answer you, help you, open a door for you, still be faithful?  Will you still be in that place of praise?  Will you continue to be obedient to God telling you to go bless someone when you are in need of blessing yourself?

The way that we see things is very different to the way God sees things and so sometimes, it is best for Him to delay His coming, His answer, His miracle, in order that His power is perfected in us.      

Bottom line, can God trust you to do the right thing when it is tough for you and worse for you?  When you have nothing left, can God trust you?  Can God trust you in the hard times to do the right thing or will you give up??? 

PRAYER POINT: Lord help me to see beyond the physical; Lord open my eyes to see you in all my situations; Lord help me to love like you love in Jesus name.

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