Divine Delay, Is It a Good Thing?

**fennywest** Sat 15 May 2010, 10:57 am

Divine delay
Is a good thing
For an uplift
Make you robust
Teach you to trust
Make you look up
Increase your faith.

Lazarus died
It looked hopeless
Jesus had delayed
Did He not care?
But He knew why
Had better plans
Resurrection
After four days
Unseen before
Unheard before.

That is His plan
Give you the best
Testimony
After the test
Trust you‘ll not rust
Because you wait
Renew your strength
To rise, surmount
Soar like eagle
To God’s Glory

So saint take heart
Never give up
Wait for your time
God’s time is best
He who laughs last
One that laughs best.
Your day will come.

Refuse to doubt
Throw fears away
Hold on to God
You’re on His Mind
He cares for you
He’ll bring you through
You’ll rise again.

Joh:11:1: Now a certain man was sick, named Lazarus, of Bethany, the town of Mary and her sister Martha.

Joh:11:2: (It was that Mary which anointed the Lord with ointment, and wiped his feet with her hair, whose brother Lazarus was sick.)
Joh:11:3: Therefore his sisters sent unto him, saying, Lord, behold, he whom thou lovest is sick.
Joh:11:4: When Jesus heard that, he said, This sickness is not unto death, but for the glory of God, that the Son of God might be glorified thereby.
Joh:11:5: Now Jesus loved Martha, and her sister, and Lazarus.
Joh:11:6: When he had heard therefore that he was sick, he abode two days still in the same place where he was.
Joh:11:7: Then after that saith he to his disciples, Let us go into Judaea again.
Joh:11:8: His disciples say unto him, Master, the Jews of late sought to stone thee; and goest thou thither again?
Joh:11:9: Jesus answered, Are there not twelve hours in the day? If any man walk in the day, he stumbleth not, because he seeth the light of this world.
Joh:11:10: But if a man walk in the night, he stumbleth, because there is no light in him.

Often we pray and wait and wait and wait and it seems God has forgotten us; erased our name from His Book of Remembrance.

It appears as if His love for us has evaporated. We were told He does not have grand children but it appears we are his grand children and He has to attend to the children first. Like the foreign woman who came to ask for healing for her daughter, we’re treated like dogs, undeserving of God’s blessings.

²⁶The woman was a Greek, a Syrophenician by nation; and she besought him that he would cast forth the devil out of her daughter.
²⁷But Jesus said unto her, Let the children first be filled: for it is not meet to take the children's bread, and to cast it unto the dogs.
²⁸And she answered and said unto him, Yes, Lord: yet the dogs under the table eat of the children's crumbs.
Mark 7:26-28

The Parable of the Persistent Widow
¹Then Jesus told his disciples a parable to show them that they should always pray and not give up. ²He said: "In a certain town there was a judge who neither feared God nor cared about men. ³And there was a widow in that town who kept coming to him with the plea, 'Grant me justice against my adversary.'
⁴"For some time he refused. But finally he said to himself, 'Even though I don't fear God or care about men, ⁵yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will see that she gets justice, so that she won't eventually wear me out with her coming!' "
⁶And the Lord said, "Listen to what the unjust judge says. ⁷And will not God bring about justice for his chosen ones, who cry out to him day and night? Will he keep putting them off? ⁸I tell you, he will see that they get justice, and quickly. However, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on the earth?"
Luke18

But the passage underlines the fact that Jesus was close to this family and loved them, yet He delayed. We are also informed that the distance was not a barrier; it was not far, yet Jesus delayed. Why? Why? Why?
God always has some thing better when He delays. It does not mean He has forgotten you. It does not mean His love for you has ebbed.

¹¹ For as high as the heavens are above the earth,
so great is his love for those who fear him;
¹² as far as the east is from the west,
so far has he removed our transgressions from us.
Ps 103:11-12

Wait on Him and you will not regret. Trust in Him and refuse to waver. Keep taking steps of faith in line with His Word. He has not forgotten you. He has something wonderful with a wow factor in store for you.

²⁸ Do you not know?
Have you not heard?
The LORD is the everlasting God,
the Creator of the ends of the earth.
He will not grow tired or weary,
and his understanding no one can fathom.
²⁹ He gives strength to the weary
and increases the power of the weak.
³⁰ Even youths grow tired and weary,
and young men stumble and fall;
³¹ but those who hope in the LORD
will renew their strength.
They will soar on wings like eagles;
they will run and not grow weary,
they will walk and not be faint.
Isa40:28-31

And God remembered Abraham…
Gen19:29
So when God destroyed the cities of the plain, he remembered Abraham, and he brought Lot out of the catastrophe that overthrew the cities where Lot had lived.
God remembered Rachel
Then God remembered Rachel; he listened to her and opened her womb
God remembered Israel
God heard their groaning and he remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac and with Jacob. Gen2:24
He has remembered his love and his faithfulness to the house of Israel; all the ends of the earth have seen the salvation of our God. Ps 98:3
God Remembered Cornelius
"...and said, 'Cornelius, God has heard your prayer and remembered your gifts to the poor. 'Acts10:31
'....nd God remembered Hannah

¹⁹ Early the next morning they arose and worshiped before the LORD and then went back to their home at Ramah. Elkanah lay with Hannah his wife, and the LORD remembered her. ²⁰ So in the course of time Hannah conceived and gave birth to a son. She named him Samuel, saying, "Because I asked the LORD for him." 1Sam 1:19-20

God remembered Noah…
Gen8:1 But God remembered Noah and all the wild animals and the livestock that were with him in the ark, and he sent a wind over the earth, and the waters receded.

God remembered Joseph languishing in the jail. He allowed the Butler to forget him initially but at the appointed time the Butler remembered.

God remembered David wandering from place to place in the wilderness hounded by King Saul, despite being anointed to be king.

God will remember you.
Divine delay is a good thing!

He hath made every thing beautiful in his time: also he hath set the world in their heart, so that no man can find out the work that God maketh from the beginning to the end Eccle3:11