Delays

And the LORD blessed the latter days of Job more than his beginning. And he had 14,000 sheep, 6,000 camels, 1,000 yoke of oxen, and 1,000 female donkeys. He had also seven sons and three daughters. And he called the name of the first daughter Jemimah, and the name of the second Keziah, and the name of the third Keren-happuch. And in all the land there were no women so beautiful as Job's daughters. And their father gave them an inheritance among their brothers. And after this Job lived 140 years, and saw his sons, and his sons' sons, four generations. And Job died, an old man, and full of days. (Job 42:12-17 ESV). The story of Job is so stark that it is difficult to believe. Many have consigned it to “fable” because of this. However, the incredible truth presented in this book is so often repeated in the Scripture that it is not a stretch at all to take all of it as an historical account. Just one of those examples is Jairus, a well-known, powerful, wealthy individual who was the head of the local synagogue. When his 12-year-old daughter, his only child, was in great need, he sought out Jesus to heal her (cf. Luke 8:4-56). We don't know whether Jairus was a believer in Jesus. As the head of the synagogue, he would have been a religious man. He probably had heard about Jesus. But Jairus believed that Jesus could save his daughter's life. So he went and found him, begging to heal his daughter. But as they were on the way to his house, the news came that his daughter had died. The reason they did not get to his daughter more quickly was because a woman in need of healing came along and touched Jesus, and He stopped and demanded to know who it was that touched Him. That “delay” had cost Jairus the life of his daughter. I can only imagine how he must have felt. Mary and Martha were in such a situation when Jesus delayed getting to Lazarus and he died. They had to wait. There are those times when God asks us to do the same. Job surely grew impatient with the Lord. Though his faith remained strong, he questioned the delay of the Lord in healing him. Don’t you grow impatient with God from time to time? I do. I find that to be one of the most dangerous times in my life. It is then that we can foolishly take things into our own hands and make them far worse. However, we I remember that God's delays are not necessarily His denials, I find it much easier to persevere. We need to wait on the Lord. The timing of God’s work in our lives is as important as the work itself. He doesn't ask for us to understand. He just asks us to trust. If you are experiencing one of these “delays”, wait. He will be found faithful!