The Cursor Is Still Blinking

Read

John 11:40-44 “Then Jesus said, ‘Did I not tell you that if you believe, you will see the glory of God?’ 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.’”

Think

When you see the typing indicator on your phone, you know the conversation is not over. You may not know what the next message will say, but there is a sign that something is still happening. Waiting on God rarely gives us a literal indicator like that. Sometimes all we see is silence.

This week, Mary and Martha have shown us what that silence can feel like. They sent for Jesus. He waited. Lazarus died. They questioned the timing. They cried. And in the middle of all of it, Jesus kept revealing who he was.

The most important truth in John 11 is not simply that Jesus eventually did something dramatic. It is that Jesus himself was their hope. Before the situation changed, he told Martha that he was the resurrection and the life. Her trust had somewhere to stand before she saw the outcome. And then the story kept going. Jesus stood at the tomb, thanked the Father for hearing him, and called Lazarus out. The next message came, and it was better than anyone in Bethany had dared to hope.

That is what you need when your own story is still unfinished. If your faith depends only on receiving the answer you want, every delay will feel like God is failing you. But if your faith is anchored in Jesus, you can keep trusting while the next line of the story is still being written.

Think about a book you have not finished yet. If you stop in the middle of the hardest chapter, you might assume the entire story is hopeless. The problem is not that the chapter is easy. The problem is that you do not know the ending. Your life is not a novel where you are guaranteed a neat ending to every problem, but the picture still helps: you are living inside a story you cannot see all at once.

God’s wait is not proof that he does not care. It may still hurt. You may still have questions tomorrow. But you can refuse to turn an unfinished story into a final conclusion about God’s character. Keep praying. Keep obeying. Keep asking honest questions. Keep your eyes on Jesus. The cursor is still blinking. Your current chapter is not the whole story.

Apply

Keep the conversation open – Return to the prayer you wrote at the beginning of the week. Pray it again, then add, “God, I trust you with the part of the story I cannot see yet.”

Pray

God, I am still waiting in some areas of my life. Thank you that an unfinished story does not mean you have stopped caring. Keep me close to Jesus when I do not know what comes next. Help me keep praying, obeying, and trusting you one day at a time. In Jesus’ name. Amen.