The Waiting Room
By Michelle Rocker
How many times in your life have you just sat waiting and waiting? You can see the promise of something, but God keeps saying, “Not yet.”
I always want to know when, why, why not, how come. I took six months of psychology in college, and have always wanted to go and finish my degree. I’m so intrigued by people and what makes them the way they are. That same curiosity I find in asking God things. But with God, you don’t get always get an answer. He only tells us what we need to know at the right time that we need it. I know our eyes will not be truly open to his plan until we reach heaven.
I swear that I hate when God answers, “Wait,” probably even more then when his answer is “No.” I know that “patience is a virtue.” I almost envy God of being able to stand outside of time. We are so locked into schedules. Everything in our lives is measured in time. We all know that when we go to the doctor’s office, that even though our appointment time was 2:30, we will not even see the doctor until 3:00 or later, hence, the label: the waiting room.
Everything is designed now days to create shortcuts, less time. We don’t like to be kept waiting. We have microwave ovens that give you a dinner in about five minutes. The express lane at the stores, and now we even have self check out. In stores, we can buy salad in a bag, rather then spending the time chopping and putting one together ourselves. Did you know you can get divorced on line?
Las Vegas prides itself on quickie weddings, and on and on the lists goes. I’m not saying there is something wrong with any of these things, but we are spoiled to speed through life. When something devastating happens to you such as abuse, or a divorce, or a loss of a child, you sat and wait for the day that you won’t think about it every minute of the day. While time does not heal all wounds, time does make it a little less painful.
I was thinking about the story in II Samuel. David had an affair with Bathsheba, in which she gets pregnant. At first he tries to pass the baby off as her husband Uriah’s son. When that didn’t work, he murders her husband.
Nathan, the prophet came to David, and told him that God knew all about his sins that he committed in secret. David immediately fell to his knees and said in, “I have sinned against the Lord." Nathan replied, "The Lord has taken away your sin. You are not going to die. But because by doing this you have made the enemies of the Lord show utter contempt, the son born to you will die." (II Samuel 12:13)
As soon as Nathan left, the Lord struck the child of Bathsheba and David’s love affair, and that baby became ill. I think the next part of this heart wrenching story is so interesting. David pleaded with God for the child. He fasted and went into his house and spent the nights lying on the ground. The elders of his household stood beside him to get him up from the ground, but he refused, and he would not eat any food with them. On the seventh day the child died. David's servants were afraid to tell him that the child was dead, for they thought, "While the child was still living, we spoke to David but he would not listen to us. How can we tell him the child is dead? He may do something desperate." David noticed that his servants were whispering among themselves and he realized the child was dead. "Is the child dead?" he asked. "Yes," they replied, "he is dead." Then David got up from the ground. After he had washed, put on lotions and changed his clothes, he went into the house of the Lord and worshiped. Then he went to his own house, and at his request they served him food, and he ate. His servants asked him, "Why are you acting this way? While the child was alive, you fasted and wept, but now that the child is dead, you get up and eat!" He answered, "While the child was still alive, I fasted and wept. I thought, 'Who knows? The Lord may be gracious to me and let the child live.' But now that he is dead, why should I fast? Can I bring him back again? I will go to him, but he will not return to me." (II Samuel 12:16-23)
David understood that God answered his prayer. If God answered me with a “no” concerning the death of one of my children, I don’t think I could get up immediately and worship. Here he had spent a whole week begging and waiting for an answer. He pleaded with God to save his son. But as I told you before, God does not treat us as our sins deserve. Now you may think that David lost this son, and that was God giving him what he deserved, but you have to read the rest of this story.
“Then David comforted his wife Bathsheba, and he went to her and lay with her. She gave birth to a son, and they named him Solomon. The Lord loved him;” (II Samuel 12:24)
I love that part: The Lord loved this child. Here is a relationship that began out of an affair, and yet God gives them a son, that he LOVED, and this baby became one of the richest and wisest kings of Israel.
In the Psalms, it is obvious that David understood how the prayer waiting room works.
In the morning, O Lord, you hear my voice; in the morning I lay my requests before you and wait in expectation. (Psalm 5:3)
I wait for the Lord, my soul waits, and in his word I put my hope. (Psalm 130:5)
Micah got it.
But as for me, I watch in hope for the Lord, I wait for God my Savior; my God will hear me. (In Micah 7:7)
They chose to stand on the promises of God knowing that he stood outside of time, and that in his timing their request would be answered. They also accepted God’s answer knowing it was the best for them. Ouch! I am not good at that at all. I have to consistently remind myself of the promises of God, because my hope is so small.
I tend to be more like Martha and Mary when their brother Lazarus fell ill. Mary was the one who had washed Jesus feet with her hair and her perfume. The disciples got very angry because she used such an expensive bottle of perfume, but she did it with so much love, that Jesus basically told them to shut up. She had been saved by Jesus Christ and her whole family believed in Jesus.
So, they sent a message to Jesus. Lord, the one you love is sick. (John 11:3) Jesus received the note and indicated he already knew the outcome. But he chose not to leave the town he was in for two days.
Now we all know when a loved one is sick, that it is crucial to rush to the bedside of a dying man. Doctors do everything they know how to save them. Martha and Mary knew that the greatest physician was Jesus and they begged him to come.
Imagine with me that you have a brother that is deathly ill. You have taken him to the hospital, and they tell you that there is a specialist that can completely heal him with a surgery. You contact the physician to come. Days slip by, and the physician does not show up, and your brother dies. Four days AFTER your brother dies, the specialist shows up. How upset would you be?
We now know that once Jesus arrived, Lazarus had been dead for four days. Martha was, as you would expect, upset. She went out to Jesus and said, “How could you? We needed you here to save our brother, and you didn’t bother coming. You didn’t answer our prayer.” Jesus answered Martha, and essentially said, “Do you trust me?” Martha said she did.
The scripture says that Martha’s sister Mary waited at home, and it wasn’t until Jesus asked for her to come, that she showed up. My guess is that she might have been angry and possibly held a grudge. When Mary fell at Jesus feet, she said the same thing as Martha, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.” (John 11:32)
This next part of the story makes me get teary eyed and makes me put some more mustard seeds of hope in my jar.
When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who had come along with her also weeping, he was deeply moved in spirit and troubled. (John 11:33)
This mighty Savior was moved by their grief! When you are pouring your heart out to God, and speaking with him honestly, he hates to see you hurt.
He then asks them where is Lazarus tomb. They take him there, and that is where we find the shortest verse in the whole Bible. John 11:35: “Jesus wept.”
I have often wondered why that verse only contains those two words. Why is it broken into one verse, and not meshed with another sentence or another verse. Why was it made to stand alone? I can’t tell you the answer for sure, but I can give you my best guess, my gut feeling, my intuition.
I believe that verse is there alone, so that we pay attention to it! Jesus wept. The definition of wept is: To shed tears as an expression of emotion: weep bitter tears of remorse; to express grief or anguish for; lament. That one word is such a powerful picture that immediately pours into your vision.
I have been to a lot of funerals, the reason being, I was a minister’s daughter, and have been a pianist in churches since I was sixteen. You can immediately identify the family mourning without them being pointed out, because you see the weeping, lamenting, grief and anguish.
However, I also find it bizarre that Jesus would weep over Lazarus being dead. Lazarus being dead should be something He would celebrate, right? Didn’t that mean he was in heaven with God the Father? Why did Jesus weep for him? Did Jesus know that God was going to give him the power to heal him?
The answer? Jesus, once more deeply moved, came to the tomb. (John 11:38)
Have you ever had a good friend just cry with you? I have a friend Suzanne that is an incredible listener. She will sit there, and if I start crying, she will cry right along with me. When I used to get teased in school over my bright red hair, my mom would sit on the couch and cry with me. It is like saying, “I hurt because you hurt.”
I think Jesus was weeping over the pain he knew Mary and Martha had gone through, or maybe the pain of death that Lazarus went through. Yet, he knew that it had to be this way for them to see the glory of God. I find the fact that Jesus, as a man, experienced the grief and anguish over the death of a friend, touching. If you have gone through that grief or pain, know that Jesus understands exactly how you feel.
The story of Lazarus ends with the incredible miracle. Jesus asked them to remove the tomb stone. They question Jesus thinking. Martha even asks him if he understands that Lazarus ain’t gonna smell so great after sitting in a tomb dead for four days. But God had a lesson to reveal.
Jesus says, “Did I not tell you that if you believed, you would see the glory of God?" (John 11:40)
They removed the stone, and Jesus uttered these words. So they took away the stone. Then Jesus looked up and said, "Father, I thank you that you have heard me. I knew that you always hear me, but I said this for the benefit of the people standing here, that they may believe that you sent me." When he had said this, Jesus called in a loud voice, "Lazarus, come out!" The dead man came out, his hands and feet wrapped with strips of linen, and a cloth around his face. Jesus said to them, "Take off the grave clothes and let him go." (John 11:41-44)
Jesus himself tells us that God ALWAYS, get this, ALWAYS hears us. His timing is not the same as ours, but he hears us. We have to learn to believe and trust and ultimately put all of our hope in Christ. We need to quit bellyaching over things that aren’t going the way we want, or the prayers that we aren’t getting answered, and instead pray with confidence. God will answer. We have to proceed in our relationship with him enough to trust that He is going to handle it, and we have let it rest in the Father’s hands.
One of the passages that cut to the root of patience in the waiting room is in Isaiah 40:26-31:
Lift your eyes and look to the heavens: Who created all these? He who brings out the starry host one by one, and calls them each by name. Because of his great power and mighty strength, not one of them is missing. Why do you say, O Jacob, and complain, O Israel, "My way is hidden from the Lord; my cause is disregarded by my God"? Do you not know? Have you not heard? The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He will not grow tired or weary, and his understanding no one can fathom. He gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak. Even youths grow tired and weary, and young men stumble and fall; but those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint.
I can almost see God putting his hands on his hips for emphasis, “Do you not know? Have you not heard?” I think that is as close as we can find God holding himself back from boxing us in the ears. This is the mighty God who hangs the stars in the sky one by one. This is the almighty God who created the beautiful sky with its amazing colors. This is the amazing God who created every thing we see in nature around us cares so much about us.
He is the one who places little infants in a woman’s womb, and that little miniature human appears at the end of nine months with little hands and toes. How can we look up and mumble like the Israelites saying, “God, why aren’t you paying attention and answering my prayers”? That is us lacking even a mustard seed of hope in our jar. We start having a little temper tantrum and tapping our little foot, and tapping our fingers on the table. “God answer me.”
I can just imagine the sadness in God’s eyes as he looks down and says, “Baby, I just want you to trust me, hope in me, and believe in me. I want you to “soar on wings like eagles,” “run and not grow weary,” and “walk and not be faint.”
If you find yourself in the prayer waiting room, read that passage above every day until God answers. Don’t hound God. He isn’t hard of hearing. Believe that he has heard you, and trust in his timing. Then the hard part: accepting his answer
By Michelle Rocker
How many times in your life have you just sat waiting and waiting? You can see the promise of something, but God keeps saying, “Not yet.”
I always want to know when, why, why not, how come. I took six months of psychology in college, and have always wanted to go and finish my degree. I’m so intrigued by people and what makes them the way they are. That same curiosity I find in asking God things. But with God, you don’t get always get an answer. He only tells us what we need to know at the right time that we need it. I know our eyes will not be truly open to his plan until we reach heaven.
I swear that I hate when God answers, “Wait,” probably even more then when his answer is “No.” I know that “patience is a virtue.” I almost envy God of being able to stand outside of time. We are so locked into schedules. Everything in our lives is measured in time. We all know that when we go to the doctor’s office, that even though our appointment time was 2:30, we will not even see the doctor until 3:00 or later, hence, the label: the waiting room.
Everything is designed now days to create shortcuts, less time. We don’t like to be kept waiting. We have microwave ovens that give you a dinner in about five minutes. The express lane at the stores, and now we even have self check out. In stores, we can buy salad in a bag, rather then spending the time chopping and putting one together ourselves. Did you know you can get divorced on line?
Las Vegas prides itself on quickie weddings, and on and on the lists goes. I’m not saying there is something wrong with any of these things, but we are spoiled to speed through life. When something devastating happens to you such as abuse, or a divorce, or a loss of a child, you sat and wait for the day that you won’t think about it every minute of the day. While time does not heal all wounds, time does make it a little less painful.
I was thinking about the story in II Samuel. David had an affair with Bathsheba, in which she gets pregnant. At first he tries to pass the baby off as her husband Uriah’s son. When that didn’t work, he murders her husband.
Nathan, the prophet came to David, and told him that God knew all about his sins that he committed in secret. David immediately fell to his knees and said in, “I have sinned against the Lord." Nathan replied, "The Lord has taken away your sin. You are not going to die. But because by doing this you have made the enemies of the Lord show utter contempt, the son born to you will die." (II Samuel 12:13)
As soon as Nathan left, the Lord struck the child of Bathsheba and David’s love affair, and that baby became ill. I think the next part of this heart wrenching story is so interesting. David pleaded with God for the child. He fasted and went into his house and spent the nights lying on the ground. The elders of his household stood beside him to get him up from the ground, but he refused, and he would not eat any food with them. On the seventh day the child died. David's servants were afraid to tell him that the child was dead, for they thought, "While the child was still living, we spoke to David but he would not listen to us. How can we tell him the child is dead? He may do something desperate." David noticed that his servants were whispering among themselves and he realized the child was dead. "Is the child dead?" he asked. "Yes," they replied, "he is dead." Then David got up from the ground. After he had washed, put on lotions and changed his clothes, he went into the house of the Lord and worshiped. Then he went to his own house, and at his request they served him food, and he ate. His servants asked him, "Why are you acting this way? While the child was alive, you fasted and wept, but now that the child is dead, you get up and eat!" He answered, "While the child was still alive, I fasted and wept. I thought, 'Who knows? The Lord may be gracious to me and let the child live.' But now that he is dead, why should I fast? Can I bring him back again? I will go to him, but he will not return to me." (II Samuel 12:16-23)
David understood that God answered his prayer. If God answered me with a “no” concerning the death of one of my children, I don’t think I could get up immediately and worship. Here he had spent a whole week begging and waiting for an answer. He pleaded with God to save his son. But as I told you before, God does not treat us as our sins deserve. Now you may think that David lost this son, and that was God giving him what he deserved, but you have to read the rest of this story.
“Then David comforted his wife Bathsheba, and he went to her and lay with her. She gave birth to a son, and they named him Solomon. The Lord loved him;” (II Samuel 12:24)
I love that part: The Lord loved this child. Here is a relationship that began out of an affair, and yet God gives them a son, that he LOVED, and this baby became one of the richest and wisest kings of Israel.
In the Psalms, it is obvious that David understood how the prayer waiting room works.
In the morning, O Lord, you hear my voice; in the morning I lay my requests before you and wait in expectation. (Psalm 5:3)
I wait for the Lord, my soul waits, and in his word I put my hope. (Psalm 130:5)
Micah got it.
But as for me, I watch in hope for the Lord, I wait for God my Savior; my God will hear me. (In Micah 7:7)
They chose to stand on the promises of God knowing that he stood outside of time, and that in his timing their request would be answered. They also accepted God’s answer knowing it was the best for them. Ouch! I am not good at that at all. I have to consistently remind myself of the promises of God, because my hope is so small.
I tend to be more like Martha and Mary when their brother Lazarus fell ill. Mary was the one who had washed Jesus feet with her hair and her perfume. The disciples got very angry because she used such an expensive bottle of perfume, but she did it with so much love, that Jesus basically told them to shut up. She had been saved by Jesus Christ and her whole family believed in Jesus.
So, they sent a message to Jesus. Lord, the one you love is sick. (John 11:3) Jesus received the note and indicated he already knew the outcome. But he chose not to leave the town he was in for two days.
Now we all know when a loved one is sick, that it is crucial to rush to the bedside of a dying man. Doctors do everything they know how to save them. Martha and Mary knew that the greatest physician was Jesus and they begged him to come.
Imagine with me that you have a brother that is deathly ill. You have taken him to the hospital, and they tell you that there is a specialist that can completely heal him with a surgery. You contact the physician to come. Days slip by, and the physician does not show up, and your brother dies. Four days AFTER your brother dies, the specialist shows up. How upset would you be?
We now know that once Jesus arrived, Lazarus had been dead for four days. Martha was, as you would expect, upset. She went out to Jesus and said, “How could you? We needed you here to save our brother, and you didn’t bother coming. You didn’t answer our prayer.” Jesus answered Martha, and essentially said, “Do you trust me?” Martha said she did.
The scripture says that Martha’s sister Mary waited at home, and it wasn’t until Jesus asked for her to come, that she showed up. My guess is that she might have been angry and possibly held a grudge. When Mary fell at Jesus feet, she said the same thing as Martha, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.” (John 11:32)
This next part of the story makes me get teary eyed and makes me put some more mustard seeds of hope in my jar.
When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who had come along with her also weeping, he was deeply moved in spirit and troubled. (John 11:33)
This mighty Savior was moved by their grief! When you are pouring your heart out to God, and speaking with him honestly, he hates to see you hurt.
He then asks them where is Lazarus tomb. They take him there, and that is where we find the shortest verse in the whole Bible. John 11:35: “Jesus wept.”
I have often wondered why that verse only contains those two words. Why is it broken into one verse, and not meshed with another sentence or another verse. Why was it made to stand alone? I can’t tell you the answer for sure, but I can give you my best guess, my gut feeling, my intuition.
I believe that verse is there alone, so that we pay attention to it! Jesus wept. The definition of wept is: To shed tears as an expression of emotion: weep bitter tears of remorse; to express grief or anguish for; lament. That one word is such a powerful picture that immediately pours into your vision.
I have been to a lot of funerals, the reason being, I was a minister’s daughter, and have been a pianist in churches since I was sixteen. You can immediately identify the family mourning without them being pointed out, because you see the weeping, lamenting, grief and anguish.
However, I also find it bizarre that Jesus would weep over Lazarus being dead. Lazarus being dead should be something He would celebrate, right? Didn’t that mean he was in heaven with God the Father? Why did Jesus weep for him? Did Jesus know that God was going to give him the power to heal him?
The answer? Jesus, once more deeply moved, came to the tomb. (John 11:38)
Have you ever had a good friend just cry with you? I have a friend Suzanne that is an incredible listener. She will sit there, and if I start crying, she will cry right along with me. When I used to get teased in school over my bright red hair, my mom would sit on the couch and cry with me. It is like saying, “I hurt because you hurt.”
I think Jesus was weeping over the pain he knew Mary and Martha had gone through, or maybe the pain of death that Lazarus went through. Yet, he knew that it had to be this way for them to see the glory of God. I find the fact that Jesus, as a man, experienced the grief and anguish over the death of a friend, touching. If you have gone through that grief or pain, know that Jesus understands exactly how you feel.
The story of Lazarus ends with the incredible miracle. Jesus asked them to remove the tomb stone. They question Jesus thinking. Martha even asks him if he understands that Lazarus ain’t gonna smell so great after sitting in a tomb dead for four days. But God had a lesson to reveal.
Jesus says, “Did I not tell you that if you believed, you would see the glory of God?" (John 11:40)
They removed the stone, and Jesus uttered these words. So they took away the stone. Then Jesus looked up and said, "Father, I thank you that you have heard me. I knew that you always hear me, but I said this for the benefit of the people standing here, that they may believe that you sent me." When he had said this, Jesus called in a loud voice, "Lazarus, come out!" The dead man came out, his hands and feet wrapped with strips of linen, and a cloth around his face. Jesus said to them, "Take off the grave clothes and let him go." (John 11:41-44)
Jesus himself tells us that God ALWAYS, get this, ALWAYS hears us. His timing is not the same as ours, but he hears us. We have to learn to believe and trust and ultimately put all of our hope in Christ. We need to quit bellyaching over things that aren’t going the way we want, or the prayers that we aren’t getting answered, and instead pray with confidence. God will answer. We have to proceed in our relationship with him enough to trust that He is going to handle it, and we have let it rest in the Father’s hands.
One of the passages that cut to the root of patience in the waiting room is in Isaiah 40:26-31:
Lift your eyes and look to the heavens: Who created all these? He who brings out the starry host one by one, and calls them each by name. Because of his great power and mighty strength, not one of them is missing. Why do you say, O Jacob, and complain, O Israel, "My way is hidden from the Lord; my cause is disregarded by my God"? Do you not know? Have you not heard? The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He will not grow tired or weary, and his understanding no one can fathom. He gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak. Even youths grow tired and weary, and young men stumble and fall; but those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint.
I can almost see God putting his hands on his hips for emphasis, “Do you not know? Have you not heard?” I think that is as close as we can find God holding himself back from boxing us in the ears. This is the mighty God who hangs the stars in the sky one by one. This is the almighty God who created the beautiful sky with its amazing colors. This is the amazing God who created every thing we see in nature around us cares so much about us.
He is the one who places little infants in a woman’s womb, and that little miniature human appears at the end of nine months with little hands and toes. How can we look up and mumble like the Israelites saying, “God, why aren’t you paying attention and answering my prayers”? That is us lacking even a mustard seed of hope in our jar. We start having a little temper tantrum and tapping our little foot, and tapping our fingers on the table. “God answer me.”
I can just imagine the sadness in God’s eyes as he looks down and says, “Baby, I just want you to trust me, hope in me, and believe in me. I want you to “soar on wings like eagles,” “run and not grow weary,” and “walk and not be faint.”
If you find yourself in the prayer waiting room, read that passage above every day until God answers. Don’t hound God. He isn’t hard of hearing. Believe that he has heard you, and trust in his timing. Then the hard part: accepting his answer
copyright © 2008 Michelle Rocker. All rights reserved.