MEMORISE
Go ye up unto this feast: I go not up yet unto this feast; for my time is not yet full come.
John 7:8
READ
John 11:39-44
John 11:39 Jesus
said, Take ye away the stone. Martha, the sister of him that was dead,
saith unto him, Lord, by this time he stinketh: for he hath been dead
four days.
John 11:40 Jesus saith unto her, Said I not unto thee, that, if thou wouldest believe, thou shouldest see the glory of God?
John 11:41 Then
they took away the stone from the place where the dead was laid. And
Jesus lifted up his eyes, and said, Father, I thank thee that thou hast
heard me.
John 11:42 And
I knew that thou hearest me always: but because of the people which
stand by I said it, that they may believe that thou hast sent me.
John 11:43And when he thus had spoken, he cried with a loud voice, Lazarus, come forth.
John 11:44 And
he that was dead came forth, bound hand and foot with graveclothes: and
his face was bound about with a napkin. Jesus saith unto them, Loose
him, and let him go.
MESSAGE
God
is never too early, and He is never too late. His timetable is set on
purpose; the purpose is not only for your sake but also for His. In all
things, His name shall be glorified. No doubt, He would have been
glorified healing Lazarus of his sickness, but this cannot compare to
raising him from the dead after four days. God works according to His
own time-table. His time-table is not necessarily in tune with your own
time-table, even when it concerns situations or issues of your life for
which you desire His intervention. Being the perfect God that He is, His
time-table is the perfect one and not yours. Your case will soon become
a testimony that will bring you great joy and celebration; your
testimony will also bring great glory to God, in Jesus’ Name. Keep
resting in Jesus, keep trusting in Him, and don’t shift your focus from
Him. You are on the verge of God turning the table in your favour and
turning it against your enemies.
The
attributes of God’s nature such as omnipotence, omnipresence and
omniscience are demonstrated in the way His timetable works. His love
moves Him to seek the good of His people and to desire their peace, joy,
fulfilment, health etc. By His omnipresence and omniscience, He sees
and knows all that is going on, even to the smallest detail. Through His
omnipotence, He has the ability to effect the required and desirable
change – for example, He can make a ninety year old woman conceive a
child, as was the case with Sarah. He can bring back to life a decaying
corpse, as was the case of Lazarus, the brother of Martha and Mary (John
11:39-44). He can also make a woman to have natural birth after three
previous births by caesarean section, as He did for my wife. God, by His
omnipotence is even able to bring back lost opportunities, such as in
the life of Abraham, who in spite of working out his own plan to fulfil
God’s purpose for his life, still received the true seed of promise,
though his action and expectation should have aborted God’s original
plan for his life (Genesis 17:16-19).
What
more can we hope for? When God is at work, the impossible becomes
possible, the irreversible becomes reversed, and the hopeless becomes
hopeful. He can rewrite history with your life. For someone using this
devotional now, your accepted time is now. Your story is changing from a
shameful or reproachful one to an enviable one. You will forget quickly
the pain and sorrow of your past by the change of events which will
occur soon in Jesus’ Name.
ACTION POINT
Extol
God for all His attributes: love, power, faithfulness and others. Tell
Him you love and will serve Him with all your heart. Then tell Him what
you want Him to do for you.
