Why the Delays?

Have you ever felt like you have been waiting on the Lord to answer prayer and wondered why He is taking so long?  Maybe you have been waiting for a loved ones salvation. Perhaps you are impatient for a healing or in a panic for the finances for your next mortgage payment.  Waiting on the Lord to move is something that we don't  always fully understand. He may delay, but we DO KNOW that He will always answer our prayers, even if we don't like the answer. A powerful story and one of my favorites is where Jesus proclaims that ,"I AM THE THE RESURRECTION AND THE LIFE. WHOSOEVER BELIEVES IN ME,THOUGH HE DIE, YET SHALL HE LIVE, AND EVERYONE WHO LIVES AND BELIEVES IN ME SHALL NEVER DIE.  DO YOU BELIEVE THIS? He was about to reveal to his friends and disciples the power of the resurrection in Himself by raising Lazarus.


I have asked myself many times, why did Jesus delay in coming? He certainly loved Mary, Martha and their brother Lazarus. Even His tears gave away His love for them. Yet He delayed and they didn't understand why?  I have thought many times in my own life, how Jesus must weep, when He has to delay in answering a prayer. I think that it is so important that we realize that He has His reasons. I am finding that the reason usually is that I might know Him more and more in who He is.


For instance, Mary and Martha loved the Lord.  They believed that He could have healed Lazarus, if He had come in time.  They had seen and heard that He had healed many people.  But, did they really know Him as their HEALER, or just that He could heal?  Was their hope only in what He COULD DO and not in WHO He was? Now they would come to see and know Him as the RESURRECTION AND THE LIFE, not just one who could raise the dead.


This story and how God intentionally delayed in order to reveal WHO HE WAS has helped me to be more grateful for God's delays in my life. When my husband was out of work, His delay revealed that He alone was our PROVIDER, and not just provision. When I needed physical or emotional healing Jesus was the HEALER, by many means of grace.  When I was DEAD in my trespasses and sin, Jesus spoke RESURRECTION LIFE to my spirit and I was born again and fulled with the Holy Spirit.

Before we are born again, we all are the WALKING DEAD. Our spirit is separated from God and we are spiritually dead, until Jesus speaks to our spirit and says," LIVE", and then the miracle happens.  Our spiritual eyes are opened and we come alive in Christ. We are now spiritually alive in Jesus Christ and we no longer desire our old smelly, rotten grave cloths, (our flesh).  God has made  us the RIGHTEOUSNESS OF GOD IN CHRIST JESUS and we no longer smell.  If there is any smell around, it is only our grave cloths and we no longer live in them.

The more we see Jesus high and lifted up, the more we are changed into His image and likeness. It is His life in us that overcomes this world, our flesh and the devil. We will have trials and tribulations, to prefect our faith, (James 1),  but praise be to God, Jesus has overcome this world. "This is the victory that has overcome the world--OUR FAITH.  Who is it that overcomes the world except the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God." (1 John 5:4)   


His delays are worth waiting for.  I have never  been disappointed, but only able to see Jesus more and more in His resurrected power, able to work out any situation or circumstance for His glory. God is good all the time.