DELAY MAY JUST BE LOVE

• DAY 220
• FAITH FILE: LAZARUS
• SCRIPTURES: JOHN 11:5-7, 11

Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus. So, when He heard that he was sick, He stayed two more days in the place where He was. Then after this He said to the disciples, “Let us go to Judea again.” These things He said, and after that He said to them, “Our friend Lazarus sleeps, but I go that I may wake him up.”

Have you ever considered that delay is love or maybe an expression of love? God can express His love for you by holding off on what you are asking for because He has something better in store for you. As we read in our text today, Jesus loved Lazarus, Mary, and Martha. Yet, when he heard that his friend was sick, He delayed going for two days. And I’m thinking, “Why would you love somebody so much and stay for two days? What is it that would make you decide that in this emergency I’m in, delaying is what’s best for me?

God, you are all-knowing, so you can see that I need help at this very moment. You can see that the situation is getting dire. My landlord is about to throw me out. I’m about to lose my admission. I’m about to lose my child. Things are going upside down and time is running out for me. I know that You are not defined by time, but time is running out for me. So what is so wrong with helping me and helping me right now? These are all the questions I have had in my heart at those times when I cried out to God and He didn’t respond in that moment, knowing how urgent the situation is.

Delaying On Purpose

Beloved, there is love in delay if it comes from God because God’s nature is love. And if He delays even for a moment, it’s because coming on your own time is not profitable for you. He works everything according to time, seasons, and plans. So what might seem like an emergency for you that may cost you things temporarily will get you something greater in the future.

One time in my life. I felt that God was delaying getting me a husband. There were so many people that had come and I knew they weren’t for me. After a while, nobody was coming. I felt that maybe I had been so picky that I had driven everybody away. The farther I went from 30, the more worried I became yet I kept it to myself. After almost making the wrong choice, I learned to trust Him. The time He took helped me become the kind of woman that would match the man He had prepared for me.

He Comes Big

I don’t know what you think God is taking His time to bring for you, but history has it that God takes time when He wants to bring something amazing. He took time to give Abraham a seed because He wanted to raise a new generation of people through whom He would establish His purpose on the earth. This people would have who would learn to consistently depend on Him for everything that had to do with their life. And so Abraham had to learn that dependency. And he learned it by waiting on God to give him a child. God also “waited” to give Elizabeth a child, and He took time sending Jesus to come and die and save the world.

Every time it appears that God is delaying according to man’s calendar and expectation when He does come, He comes big. And He does such an amazing miracle that you will forget the years that you spent waiting. So if this is your waiting season, I want to announce to you that God is lovingly delaying on purpose. And so you should not be afraid. Wait on the Lord. Wait again, I say on the Lord. 

Shalom