Seven Minutes of Terror

Welcome to today's encouragement from Our Daily Bread. Our reading, titled Seven Minutes of Terror, was written by Dave Brannan. When the Mars rover, Perseverance, landed on that red planet on February 18, 2021, those monitoring its arrival endured seven minutes of terror.

As the spacecraft ended its 292 million mile journey, it went through a complex landing procedure it had to do on its own. Signals from Mars to Earth take several minutes, so NASA couldn't hear from Perseverance during the landing. Not being in contact was frightening for the team, who had put so much effort and resources into the mission. Sometimes, we may experience our own times of fear when we feel we're not hearing from God. We pray, but we don't get answers. In Scripture, we find people getting answers to prayer quickly and those not getting answers for a long time. Perhaps the most poignant example of a delayed answer, one that surely struck terror in the hearts of Mary and Martha, was when they asked Jesus to help their sick brother, Lazarus. Jesus delayed and their brother died. Yet, four days later, Christ answered by resurrecting Lazarus.

Waiting for answers to our prayers can be difficult, but God can comfort and help us as we approach his throne of grace with confidence that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need. Today's Our Daily Bread devotional scripture reading is from John 11, verses 38-43. Jesus, once more deeply moved, came to the tomb. It was a cave with a stone laid across the entrance. Take away the stone, he said.

But, Lord, said Martha, the sister of the dead man, by this time there is a bad odor, for he has been there four days. 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. Let's pray. Loving God, our hearts are often overwhelmed with the burden of unanswered prayers. Help us to trust you that you know what's on our hearts and that you will meet our every need. Help us to be patient as we wait for you to answer. Thank you, Lord. It's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Thanks for listening today. I'm Stephen Tabor, and today's encouragement was provided by Our Daily Bread Ministries.