John 11:39 \u201cTake away the stone,\u201d he said. \u201cBut, Lord,\u201d said Martha, the sister of the dead man, \u201cby this time there is a bad odor, for he has been there four days.\u201d
\nJohn 11:40 Then Jesus said, \u201cDid I not tell you that if you believe, you will see the glory of God?\u201d<\/p>\n
There are moments when all seems lost. The dream has died. The opportunity has passed. The prayer feels unanswered. Like Martha, you stand at the tomb of what once was, surrounded by the stench of delay, wondering why Jesus didn\u2019t come sooner.<\/p>\n
Lazarus had been dead for four days. Not four hours. Not one day. Four full days of mourning, of finality, of hopelessness. In their eyes, Jesus was too late. But timing in the kingdom is not measured by clocks or calendars. God doesn\u2019t operate on our schedule\u2014He works on His divine timeline, where delays are not denials but setups for greater glory.<\/p>\n
Yes, there was doubt. Yes, there was decay. But Jesus challenged Martha\u2014and He challenges us\u2014not to focus on the smell of death, but to believe in the power of life. \u201cDid I not tell you,\u201d He says, \u201cif you believe, you will see the glory of God?\u201d That word still echoes today. You may be standing in front of something that looks too far gone\u2014but if Jesus is present, then hope is not buried\u2014it\u2019s about to rise.<\/p>\n
He may not come when you expect Him. But when He comes, He comes with resurrection power. He comes with authority. He comes with glory. And when He speaks, even death has to let go. Even when He is four days late\u2014He is still right on time.<\/p>\n
Further readings:
\nIsa 55:8\u20139
\nEccl 3:11
\nRom 4:17<\/p>\n
\ud83d\ude4f\ud83c\udffc Blessed Day \ud83d\ude4f\ud83c\udffc<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
John 11:39 \u201cTake away the stone,\u201d he said. \u201cBut, Lord,\u201d said Martha, the sister of the dead man, \u201cby this time there is a bad odor, for he has been there four days.\u201d John 11:40 Then Jesus said, \u201cDid I not tell you that if you believe, you will see the glory of God?\u201d There…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6516,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pastoralcarecenter.org\/newsletter\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6515"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pastoralcarecenter.org\/newsletter\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pastoralcarecenter.org\/newsletter\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pastoralcarecenter.org\/newsletter\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pastoralcarecenter.org\/newsletter\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6515"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/pastoralcarecenter.org\/newsletter\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6515\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6517,"href":"https:\/\/pastoralcarecenter.org\/newsletter\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6515\/revisions\/6517"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pastoralcarecenter.org\/newsletter\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6516"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pastoralcarecenter.org\/newsletter\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6515"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pastoralcarecenter.org\/newsletter\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6515"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pastoralcarecenter.org\/newsletter\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6515"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}