What to Do When You're Angry at God's Timing

Sometimes the thing that bothers you most about God is the schedule itself. Learn what Jesus did when Martha accused Him of showing up four days late, and why you can say the same sentence out loud.You know the feeling if you've prayed about something long enough. A door that stays shut year after year. A diagnosis that arrives in the worst possible month of the worst possible year. And the part that gets under your skin is the schedule itself. God could have done this last spring. He didn't. He was able the whole time. He waited anyway, and you're the one living in the meantime. Most of us handle that by getting polite with God. We pray around the thing, and we use phrases like trusting the process when what we mean is that we're furious.This episode opens with Kate Bowler, a historian at Duke who built her career studying the belief that enough faith earns you health and money. She knew every promise people made about how faith pays off. Then at 35, a new mom with a toddler at home, she was handed a diagnosis of stage 4 colon cancer. Here was a woman who taught for a living that faith produces good outcomes, and her own body had just handed her the opposite.John 11:21 records a woman who skipped the polite version entirely: "Martha said to Jesus, 'Lord, if only you had been here, my brother would not have died.'" Her brother had been in the tomb four days, and the first words out of her mouth were an accusation about the schedule. She had a point. Jesus got word that Lazarus was sick and deliberately stayed where He was for two more days. He was late on purpose.Watch what He does with her line. He never corrects her, and He never explains the two days. He asks where they put the body, and then the shortest verse in the Bible tells us what happened. Jesus wept. He stood there and cried with a woman who had just told Him He was too late. Mary comes out minutes later and says the identical sentence, so Jesus walked into a house where His timing was the main topic of conversation, and He didn't defend Himself one time. Then He raised the man.So take yours to Him. God is more secure than the version of Him you were taught to protect, and He would rather have your frustration than a performance of patience you don't feel. Bart shares his own version of this, the years he answered people's anger about God's timing by reaching for a reason, and how long it took him to quit talking and let them say it. Kate found the same door. She threw out the tidy explanations and told God the truth about how unfair the timing felt, and she kept talking to Him.BY THE TIME YOU FINISH LISTENING, YOU'LL DISCOVER:What Jesus did when Martha accused Him of arriving four days late Why a complaint about God's timing can come from inside your faith A sentence you can pray today without cleaning it up firstAnger that keeps praying is still a conversation, and God can work with a conversation. Say it, and then stay in the room.Share This Episode:https://www.dailydevotionsforbusylives.com/325Need Prayer? Leave me a voicemail:https://www.dailydevotionsforbusylives.com/voicemailWant to keep these devotions coming? Please consider supporting this podcast.https://www.dailydevotionsforbusylives.com/support/Rate and Reviewhttps://www.dailydevotionsforbusylives.com/reviews/new/Connect with BartFacebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/dailydevotionsforbusylivesWebsite: https://www.dailydevotionsforbusylives.comFeeling spiritually drained? Start here. Download your free copy of my eBook Making Time for Jesus here: https://www.dailydevotionsforbusylives.com/subscribe.