Trusting God's Timing

http://www.anglican-nig.org/main.php?k_j=13&d=79&p_t=index.php

[Church of Nigeria News] 13 July 2009--On his arrival, Jesus found that Lazarus had already been in the tomb for four days. 18 Bethany was less than two miles from Jerusalem, 19 and many Jews had come to Martha and Mary to comfort them in the loss of their brother. 20 When Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went out to meet him, but Mary stayed at home. 21 "Lord," Martha said to Jesus, "if you had been here, my brother would not have died. 22 But I know that even now God will give you whatever you ask." 23 Jesus said to her, "Your brother will rise again." 24 Martha answered, "I know he will rise again in the resurrection at the last day." 25 Jesus said to her, "I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies; 26 and whoever lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?" 27 "Yes, Lord," she told him, "I believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God, who was to come into the world."

If there is ever a time when our faith is stretched, it is at the time of waiting. It is that time when we have prayed fervently and earnestly claimed God’s promises to strengthen our faith. It is that time when all these exercises have been undertaken and we feel so sure that the expected result would come, we feel certain and at peace that heaven has heard and approved our request. Just then, in a way we cannot explain, that sickness ends in death, (as in Lazarus’s case in our passage above); or that examination result (for one level of promotion or another) turns out differently; or that job doesn’t come or, as must now be the experience of some who trusted God and ventured into politics with all their hard-earned resources and more – and yet the result turns out negative.