By AMANDA CONN

How Long?

Jesus waited.

So Lazarus waited.

Mary and Martha waited.

But the waiting didn’t end with the result they had in mind.

If you have walked with the Lord for any length of time, then you have learned that His timing doesn’t match ours. While I have learned that His timing is perfect, I have also learned that the waiting period shows me more clearly how imperfect I am.

I start to see how truly impatient I am.

I see how faith can be stretched thin when the waiting period outlasts my preconceived idea.

I begin to recognize that the main question in my heart isn’t “Why?” …but “How long?”

I think of Jesus telling the sleepy disciples in the garden that the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak. How we are good at standing strong in faith at the onset of the trial, but how we tire and wane as time wears on with no relief.

We begin to battle a different type of exhaustion when there is no light in sight at the end of this tunnel. That each pressing day looks the same as the one before…and the one to come doesn’t offer a glimpse of rescue. We get tired. Worn. Weary. We wonder how much longer we can wait.

And then Lazarus passes.

We wait for Jesus to come and rescue, but then He doesn’t answer in the way or time we expect. We have watched Him heal others right in front of us. We have witnessed answered prayers in the lives of those around us. But when it’s our turn…where is He?

I don’t know the season you are enduring right now. I don’t know the trial you are facing, nor do I know how long you have been weathering the storm. I do know that I am walking through a couple of simultaneous trials that are tempting me to have Martha’s mindset as she wondered where Jesus was in all of this…why isn’t He coming through yet?

I don’t know why or how long each of our trials will last, but I pray we are encouraged to keep standing. Keep trusting. Keep walking. Keep waiting.

Jesus may not show up when you expect, but He will show up when it’s time.

Know that the trial is never out of reach of the Lord’s hand to deliver you.

And know that someone is watching you in the waiting to see the glory of God through it all.

Amanda Conn has been a member of The River Church of God for more than 20 years, involved in several different ministries. She also works at Industrial Rental in Guntersville. She is the wife of Jeff Conn and mother to Jayden and Avery.