{"id":14714,"date":"2025-05-21T22:51:39","date_gmt":"2025-05-22T01:51:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/shreveministries.org\/wp2\/?p=14714"},"modified":"2025-05-21T22:53:48","modified_gmt":"2025-05-22T01:53:48","slug":"if-only","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/shreveministries.org\/wp2\/2025\/05\/if-only\/","title":{"rendered":"If Only"},"content":{"rendered":"
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A waiting season in our life\u2019s will test our faith in unimaginable ways. Is this going to happen for me? Has God forgotten His promise to me? Where is God when one of the deepest desires of our heart appears to be dying? How can we trust a God who allows heartbreaking delays?<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Mary and Martha sent word to Jesus that their brother Lazarus was sick, they said, \u201cLord, the one you love is sick.\u201d I\u2019m sure they felt like Jesus would show up immediately. But by the time Jesus finally arrived, Lazarus was dead, gone, and in the tomb for four days.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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When Mary sees Jesus, she speaks the same words as Martha, \u201cLord, IF ONLY you had been here, my brother would not have died.\u201d This always gets to my heart. I can feel her disappointment and grief. Can\u2019t you? Haven\u2019t you felt this, the IF ONLY moments in your life?<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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If only God intervened.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

If only God opened that one door.<\/div>\n
If only God moved a little faster.<\/div>\n
If only God answered the prayer sooner.<\/div>\n
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IF ONLY!!! IF ONLY!!!<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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The days went on and on for the sisters and the friends waiting for Jesus. With every sunrise and sunset, Mary and Martha must have been wondering, what could be more important than this? Where is he? Why is it taking so long?<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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When Jesus finally arrived, He sees Mary\u2019s tears and responds to her if only. What does He have to say for Himself? What explanation does He provide for His unacceptable tardiness?<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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But He doesn\u2019t explain. He doesn\u2019t give a reason. Jesus wept. He just begins to cry.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n

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Jesus sees the sisters\u2019 tears, and He feels their pain. He is greatly troubled and deeply moved. Jesus didn\u2019t rush to the solution; He didn\u2019t skip over or dismiss their emotion. Jesus validates the pain and the disappointment, and even though He knows He will raise Lazarus from the dead, what does He do? He weeps. He shares in their tears and pain. He lets them know, you aren\u2019t alone in your sadness. I have the answer but first, let me acknowledge your question, your pain and your tears.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Why didn\u2019t Jesus get there sooner? Why did Jesus allow the delay? And if Jesus knows He\u2019s going to raise Lazarus from the dead, why allow the pain and sadness beforehand? I really don\u2019t know.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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But we see a side of Jesus in this story that we haven\u2019t seen before. We see Him drawing near to the broken-hearted, weeping with them in their pain. We see Jesus as a miracle worker, bringing death to life, and turning around an impossible situation. We see that although He was late, He was really right on time. His timing is different from ours.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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When our heart feels broken, and our hope is deferred, we must remind ourselves that God is still near. He isn\u2019t far off, in the clouds, or playing hide-and-seek. He\u2019s right there. And when we feel like our heart is dead, even death isn\u2019t final in God\u2019s kingdom. He can bring dead dreams back to live.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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He\u2019s here to help. He will show up and fix our IF ONLYS.<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A waiting season in our life\u2019s will test our faith in unimaginable ways. Is this going to happen for me? Has God forgotten His promise to me? Where is God when one of the deepest desires of our heart appears to be dying? How can we trust a God who allows heartbreaking delays? Mary and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":14720,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,35],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14714","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog","category-elizabeth"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/shreveministries.org\/wp2\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/Untitled-23.png","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/shreveministries.org\/wp2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14714","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/shreveministries.org\/wp2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/shreveministries.org\/wp2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shreveministries.org\/wp2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shreveministries.org\/wp2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14714"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/shreveministries.org\/wp2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14714\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14721,"href":"https:\/\/shreveministries.org\/wp2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14714\/revisions\/14721"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shreveministries.org\/wp2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14720"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/shreveministries.org\/wp2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14714"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shreveministries.org\/wp2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14714"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shreveministries.org\/wp2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14714"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}