When God? (3) – When God is Late (John 11:1-45)

When God? (3) – When God is Late (John 11:1-45)

We are wrapping up our series When God? and the point of the series is to remind all of us that the experience we have about God being inattentive, uncooperative or late is universal, and that you don’t have to lose faith over that.  We said in the first week that when God seems inattentive, look back and remember God’s faithfulness in your life.  Look outside and reflect on God’s activity in the world.  Then last week we talked about when God seems uncooperative, learn to take “no” for an answer and when you do, you will experience His sustaining grace.

Today we are going to talk about when God seems late, and the question associate with this topic, “why doesn’t God do something about that?”  And to address that we are going to look at a story in the New Testament where we seemingly found Jesus being late, yet he really wasn’t.  You probably have heard of this story, but this time we are going to read it together as if we are the main characters of the story.  Because I think when we do that, we will be able to hold firmly onto our faith when God seems late in our lives.

Moving Forward

When God is late in addressing your problems or answering your prayers, it can be difficult to know how to continue on in faith. But the story of Jesus raising Lazarus from the dead offers a picture of hope in the midst of a hopeless situation. If you continue to trust God through your pain, he will eventually show you his glory.

Discussion Questions

1. Talk about a time when you were late arriving where you were expected

2. Read John 11:11–14. React to the idea that Jesus allowed Lazarus to die so that his disciples could see God’s glory and believe.

3. Has a painful circumstance ever caused you to question God’s love for you? Explain.

4. In John 11, Jesus’ late arrival resulted in Lazarus’ death, and great suffering for Mary and Martha. How can Jesus’ resurrection of Lazarus give us hope when we suffer loss and God offers no obvious miracles?

5. Read John 11:35. How does knowing that God isn’t too big or too distant to understand your pain change your perspective on suffering?