JOHN 11:5\u20136<\/b><\/p>\n
So, when He heard that he was sick, He stayed two more days in the place where He was<\/i><\/p>\n
(John 11:6<\/i>).<\/p>\n
When you first read verses 5 and 6, you might do a double take: \u201cNow Jesus loved<\/i> Martha and her sister and Lazarus. So, when He heard that he was sick, He stayed<\/i> two more days in the place where He was.\u201d Wouldn\u2019t it make more sense for Jesus to leave immediately? But notice this is not what He did. The verses say that He loved them, so he remained where He was. It was because He loved them so deeply that He stayed two more days. Because of His delay, He would not reach Bethany until Lazarus had been dead four<\/i> days.<\/p>\n
Why did He do this? Didn\u2019t He know the anxiety that Mary and Martha felt? You can just picture these two women kneeling at their brother\u2019s bedside, worry etched into their faces, and occasionally glancing at the door as footsteps passed by outside. When would their Master arrive? What was taking Him so long? We mustn\u2019t pass over these verses without considering the very real and painful struggle that was occurring in Lazarus\u2019 home.<\/p>\n
And yet Jesus waited. Why? We gain some insight into the answer to that question in verse 15: \u201cAnd I am glad for your sakes that I was not there [when Lazarus died], that you may believe.\u201d Jesus waited because He wanted to strengthen the faith of Mary, Martha, Lazarus, and His disciples. By waiting until Lazarus was dead four days, Jesus knew that God\u2019s power would be more greatly displayed than if He had arrived earlier.<\/p>\n
Few things are more difficult than waiting on the Lord during those hours of our greatest need. We\u2019ve prayed, we cried out to Him for relief from our distress, and yet heaven seems silent. But passages such as the one before us remind us that our Lord is near, and that His plans are beyond our understanding. Even as we wait, we can trust that He knows what is best and that through even the most difficult circumstances, He will be glorified. Sometimes that means watching a loved one die, but we must never believe that God has abandoned us. He is always with those He loves. This is our comfort and our hope when the dark clouds of providence hang over our heads. During those times, may we pray as David did to take heart and \u201cto wait on the Lord.\u201d<\/p>\n
CORAM DEO<\/b><\/p>\n
Job 23\u201325<\/p>\n
Acts 10:24\u201348<\/p>\n
Is there a situation in your life that you have been praying about for a long time and are frustrated because God is silent? It might not necessarily be a health problem, maybe you are concerned about the salvation of a loved one. Pray about that situation, and repeat Psalm 27:14 often during your prayer.<\/p>\n
For further study:<\/i> Pss. 25:1\u20135<\/i>; 62:5\u20138<\/i> \u2022 Prov. 20:22<\/i> \u2022 Isa. 8:11\u201317<\/i><\/p>\n
thursday<\/p>\n
july<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
JOHN 11:5\u20136 So, when He heard that he was sick, He stayed two more days in the place where He was (John 11:6). When you first read verses 5 and 6, you might do a double take: \u201cNow Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus. So, when He heard that he was sick, He … Continue reading “WAITING ON THE LORD”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13012","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sermons"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13012","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13012"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13012\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13012"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13012"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13012"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}