Waiting... part 2

I have been writing a lot of sequels lately... go figure.
But last night something really cool happened in small groups, guess what the lesson was...
Yep you guessed it, waiting on GOD.
I thought it was pretty cool that what I was dealing with was covered in the lesson the very day I blogged about it.
So what I learned, well I guess the waiting part is a test as to wether I trust or do not trust GOD.
The story in our lesson last night was about Lazerous. How he died and Jesus did not get there in time to heal him. I really related to how the author describe the angst that Mary and Martha must have been going through "waiting" on Jesus to show up and heal their brother.
I made this point. They sent a message off to Jesus and when Jesus received the Bible says he stayed there another two days. So Mary and Martha send a message that Lazerous is sick and they are expecting Jesus to come a runnin' as we say in the south. But Jesus doesn't come immediately like they expected. Can you imagine Mary and Martha watching the road for Jesus and his followers to come walking over the hill. They send the message and the next day they are thinking well if he is close he should get here today. And the sun sets ending the day and Jesus still has not arrived and Lazerous is getting worse. So the next morning they just know that this is the day when Jesus will arrive. So they set about getting the house ready, looking and yearning for Jesus' arrival because Lazerous is really getting bad now but still no Jesus. Imagine this if you will. Lazerous is fading fast, his breathes are becoming more and more shallow, he hasn't opened his eyes or communicated with his sisters for a few hours now. He is at death's door and I am sure Mary and Martha are just waiting for Jesus to bust in the door and make their brother well. Imagine you are sitting at the bedside of Lazerous and he takes his last breathe and dies. Mary and Martha at his point must be thinking, well Jesus must be really close now and yet Jesus still does not show up. An hour goes by and Lazerous starts to look real pale as his heart has ceased to beat. Four hours go by and rigamortis sets in. Eight hours goes by and the family is telling Mary and Martha that he is gone and we have to prepare his body for a funeral. The next day they have the funeral and they put Lazerous in the tomb and roll the stone in front of the door.
When do you think Mary and Martha felt that GOD had let them down? At the point of Lazerous' last breathe? When rigamortis set in? When they rolled the stone in front of the door. You kind of see Mary's faith when Jesus does show up when she said "if you had been here you could have healed him". To Mary the promise was dead, laid behind a stone in a tomb.
How many of us are in that situation today. Promises and dreams given by the Lord dead and gone, the breath of live no longer living in them?
I know that I have felt that way. That GOD had missed the deadline, if only he had acted then...
But with GOD, he can bring back to life the dead and buried dreams. He can breath life back into the promises of yesterday with just the sound of his voice because he is GOD.
All he had to do was say, "Lazerous, come forth", and he did!
So trust in GOD, even when the cold hard fingers of death have gripped your dreams and promises and remember that death has no hold on him who has the keys!!