Tick, tock, tick, tock. Time is an essential, non-touchable resource in your life. We all suffer from the troubles of busyness and lack of time. We feel the crunch and pressure, so we make plans to help alleviate the pressure. No matter how much we plan, it so often seems that things go wrong and our timing and God’s timing is different. We want things quickly and efficiently. We want things our way. Waiting is not an option.

But in this hurried life, we end up failing to rely on God and see how His timing is greater than ours. How His plan will be better than our plan. In the account of Lazarus we see that Jesus had a plan. “This illness does not lead to death. It is for the glory of God, so that the Son of God may be glorified through it.” His desire is to always bring glory to the Father. He is perfect, He is our example. And before Lazarus had died, Jesus had a plan. And His plan required different timing than we would expect.

After hearing of His friend, whom He loved, He didn’t come through. He didn’t run to heal when the sisters wanted Him. And as He waited, we are thinking, “how does Jesus waiting show love?” And yet we are told “Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus.” And after the waiting we learn that “Lazarus has died”. For most this would be it, our view on God’s timing would be dashed. But this is not the end for Jesus said; “and for your sake I am glad that I was not there, so that you may believe.”

Believe. Jesus cares enough about you to have a plan that leads you to believe. But will you? Will you trust and pray in God’s timing? Will you be willing to put faith in the hours, days, weeks, months and years that it takes for our timing to line up with God’s? Will you trust in His plan for you, even when the timing is off? Time is a precious thing that God’s uses to teach us His plan and rely on Him. Trust the Lord, and His timing.

Now a certain man was ill, Lazarus of Bethany, the village of Mary and her sister Martha. It was Mary who anointed the Lord with ointment and wiped his feet with her hair, whose brother Lazarus was ill. So the sisters sent to him, saying, “Lord, he whom you love is ill.” But when Jesus heard it he said, “This illness does not lead to death. It is for the glory of God, so that the Son of God may be glorified through it.”

Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus. So, when he heard that Lazarus was ill, he stayed two days longer in the place where he was. Then after this he said to the disciples, “Let us go to Judea again.” The disciples said to him, “Rabbi, the Jews were just now seeking to stone you, and are you going there again?” Jesus answered, “Are there not twelve hours in the day? If anyone walks in the day, he does not stumble, because he sees the light of this world. But if anyone walks in the night, he stumbles, because the light is not in him.” After saying these things, he said to them, “Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep, but I go to awaken him.” The disciples said to him, “Lord, if he has fallen asleep, he will recover.” Now Jesus had spoken of his death, but they thought that he meant taking rest in sleep. Then Jesus told them plainly, “Lazarus has died, and for your sake I am glad that I was not there, so that you may believe. But let us go to him.” So Thomas, called the Twin, said to his fellow disciples, “Let us also go, that we may die with him.”

(John 11:1-16 ESV)