WHEN THE LORD IS LATE

When the Lord is late, keep the faith. Is is your turn to be blessed today? Have you claimed the Lord's promises, but he does not seem to be coming through? Are you doing everything right, as best you can, living faithfully day in and day out, to no avail? Refuse to be discouraged, and insist in your soul upon staying focused on the Lord's provision. Think about Jairus, who had an urgent need. Jesus had promised to help, but then was hopelessly delayed, caught up in a huge human traffic jam.

Mark 5:22-42 tells about how urgently the Lord was needed, and how devastating the result of his delay. It was a life-and-death matter that was laid before the Lord, with an urgent time constraint attached. Somebody was dying! How disappointed Jairus must have been when he was notified that it was just "too late." It was all over! Why bother anymore? (Let me interject here, as a mom, that if there is anything even more urgent in my mind than a life-and-death matter for me, it is a life-and-death matter involving my child!)

Jairus must have been in a world of trouble at home, as a matter of fact, for even thinking that Jesus was the answer. What was he doing, out running around at a time like that, rather than being where he belonged, with his distraught wife at his daughter's bedside at her moment of passing? What a bad father; what a silly man! Yes, and Jesus looked silly, too. Everyone laughed when the Lord came in saying, "The child is not dead but sleeping." How utterly ridiculous!

Well, you know how this story turned out, and it almost seems trite to remember that for one little girl and her family, the Lord really was TOO LATE. But when he showed up, the result was even more dynamic than if he had been right on time. If it is your turn to be blessed, Precious, and yet the Lord seems far-away, learn from this example. Keep the faith, because your Savior will show up, and when he does, the result will be more dynamic than you have ever dared to hope or imagine.