Patience: God’s Way of Exceeding our Expectations

By:  Dale Weckbacher

John 11:20-23

When Martha got word that Jesus was coming, she went to meet him. But Mary stayed in the house. ²¹ Martha said to Jesus, “Lord, if only you had been here, my brother would not have died. ²² But even now I know that God will give you whatever you ask.”

²³ Jesus told her, “Your brother will rise again.”

(NLT)

In Matthew 7:7, Jesus promised to give us whatever we ask of him.  However, some have interpreted this to mean that God will give us anything we ask for, even if it is something that would harm us or be detrimental to our faith.  Taking this verse in its total context equates this to a son asking his father for something (Matthew 7:9-11).  God is a good father and would never grant us His children a stone or serpent that could harm us and instead is willing to give us bread or a fish.  In other words, God is more than willing to meet our genuine needs. 

In Psalm 37:4, God promises to give us the desires of our heart.  My fleshly heart may desire and even treasure having a luxury car or a big house but what this verse really means is for us to allow God to transform the desires of our heart (Psalm 51:10) and bring them into alignment with His desires for us.  My prayer for everyone reading this is that they would treasure their relationship with God and develop a heart that treasures God, allowing God to govern their actions, feelings, and thoughts. 

While it is okay to be specific in our prayers to God, our specificity can limit God.  The Gospels provide two accounts where someone approached God about a genuine need in their lives and specifically asked God for what they wanted, only to have God delay so He could exceed their expectations.  Let us take a moment to look at these two accounts,

1)      Jairus’s daughter (Luke 8:40-56) – Jesus has returned to Capernaum after delivering the demon possessed man of the Gerasenes (Luke 8:26-39).  Word must have spread about this miracle for people were waiting to welcome Jesus back.  One of these individuals was Jairus, a ruler of the local synagogue who was seeking Jesus to come to his house and heal his dying daughter.  However, instead of immediately going to the House of Jairus, Jesus takes time to minister to a woman (Luke 8:43-48).  Unfortunately, during this delay Jairus’s daughter died.   Imagine if you will that this occurred in our litigant modern society and Jesus was a paramedic or doctor who delayed leading to the death of someone because they stopped to care for a less urgent call on their way.  However, Jesus is God and therefore is never late and every action of His has a purpose.  Instead of receiving the healing which Jairus specifically asked for, Jesus exceeded his expectations by raising her from the dead as a demonstration of His power over death, a precursor of His own resurrection. 

2)      Lazarus (John 11:1-44) – Mary’s, the one who anointed the Lord’s feet with ointment and her hair, brother is ill and Jesus has heard of it but instead of immediately going over to pray for Lazarus, Jesus delays four days.  During this delay, Lazarus dies just as Jairus’s daughter did.  Martha, hearing that Jesus has finally arrived goes out to meet him and give him a piece of her mind believing that if Jesus had come immediately, her brother would be alive.  Once again, Mary and Martha expected a healing from Jesus but Jesus was about to exceed their expectations by giving them a resurrection. 

While specificity in our prayers is important, we must also be open to allowing God to exceed our expectations by waiting for him to answer our prayers according to His will.  Unfortunately, it is the waiting part that causes us to struggle and even begin to doubt God even hears us.  However, it is during this waiting period that the Lord renews our strength (Isaiah 40:31).  Isaiah 41:1 continues this thought by encouraging the People of Israel to renew their strength by listening to God in silence. 

Unfortunately, in our modern society with numerous distractions, sitting in silence can be difficult.  However, we still have genuine needs and often must learn to wait upon the Lord to meet those needs.  We therefore must make a concerted effort to set daily time aside in prayer and God’s Word to renew our strength during the waiting period, enabling God to exceed our expectations.