God Has A Plan

God Has A Plan “Take away the stone, ‘He said. But Lord, said Martha, the sister of the dead man, by this time there is a bad odor, for he has been there four days.” John 11:39 Have you ever been disappointed with God’s apparent lack of response to your prayers? I am sure that almost all of us have at one time prayed to God, and have not had our prayers answered in a timely manner. It can be disheartening when you have asked God to help and intervene in a particular situation, and to know that He could have changed the outcome of your particular circumstance. But through all this, we must realize that God’s plans may not be our plans, just as it was with Martha and Mary, and their brother Lazarus. We can see in the scripture above that it was not that Jesus did not care about Lazarus, as He loved him, and had not forgotten about him. The Bible tells us that Jesus intentionally delayed going to help saying “it is for God’s glory, so that God’s son may be glorified through it.” Jesus had a plan, but Mary and Martha did not know that. All they knew was that their brother had died and Jesus didn’t come in time. Jesus knew their pain and felt it also. In fact, the Bible tells us that Jesus wept with them, but when they came to the tomb, Jesus commanded that the stone in front of the tomb be removed and for Lazarus to come forth. Many times in our lives we only see the trouble in front of us, and we want Jesus to come to our rescue and save us, but we don’t always know about God’s divine plan for us. We can become weary and disappointed when God does not immediately answer us. We need to remember that sometimes God’s plans for us might include a delay. As we wait, we must not give up, but continue to trust and have faith that God will answer our prayer, and that He cares for us and in His time will come and save us. Robert W. Brock My Daily Devotional Volume Seven​ July 6