NOW IS AN ACCEPTABLE TIME

Now Martha said to Jesus, ‘Lord, if You had been here, my brother would not have died. But even now I know that whatever You ask of God, God will give You.’ John 11:21-22

REFERENCE
John 11:17-22

Sometimes, you find yourself looking back on the past and blaming certain events for things that you might be going through. You often wish you could undo or redo certain things from your past; you may be suffering the results of poor decisions or the loss of a loved one and maybe you have held those things/people responsible for how things are going in your life today, e.g.:

–  If I hadn’t lost my job, I would not be this broke.

– If that relationship didn’t break up, I would have been married.

–If that contract had pulled through, I would have been out of debt.

– If my father/mum/spouse did not die when they did, I would have had a better life.

This was the situation Martha found herself in, in our passage. Regret had set in, so she sulked over a seeming delay. But in verse 22, she moved past her regret and despair, and exclaimed in faith, “But even now I know that whatever You ask of God, God will give You.”

This is where God wants you to be, you may have had an unfavorable situation that kept you in despair, or you may be upset about a wrong decision, or something that didn’t happen at the right time in the past. However, living in despair won’t change your situation; it could worsen it. Neither will having regrets about the past alter anything about it. So you need to forget the past and move on. God wants you to move to the place of ‘BUT NOW,’ because “NOW is the acceptable time…” It is never too late with God.

NOW, God can do something about that issue. NOW, that sickness can and will be healed. NOW, the conflict in your marriage will be resolved. NOW, that reproachful/shameful situation will be rolled away! God lives in the NOW, HE IS AN EVER PRESENT HELP! CHEER UP, ALL HOPE IS NOT LOST!

PHOTO QUOTE

ADDITIONAL STUDY
Psalm 34:17-20, 102:13, Isaiah 43:18-19 & II Corinthians 6:2 (MSG)

TO DO
Like Martha, rise up in faith and declare in the name of Jesus all you want to see NOW, regardless of past events that brought regret and made you despair.