Crosswalk the Devotional - July 14, 2009

July 14, 2009

Too Late 
by Fred Alberti, Crosswalk.com Director of Social Media

Jesus looked at them and said, "With man this is impossible, but not with God; all things are possible with God."
Mark 10:27

"No," she said, "it's too late for reconciliation. I've put up with this for close to twenty years and I can't do it any longer."

"Please seek the Lord's will first before you tell your husband to leave. The Lord will guide you if you let Him." I responded.

"Don't you understand? I don't even want God to fix it. I just don't care to be with him anymore. I don't want to make it work anymore." She replied.

"Maybe the Lord will use this time to change your husband's heart like a wake up call." I countered. But with a heavy heart I heard her say, "No, it's too late for that."

Ever encounter a situation where you just sit back and say, "No, it's too late?"

You know, Jesus heard this expression quite a few times.

In Luke 8 we meet Jairus, a man whose daughter is dying. Jesus decides to pay her a visit but is stopped along the way when a woman in the crowd is healed by touching Him. During this unexpected delay, the daughter dies and messengers are sent to tell the father it was too late. "Why bother the teacher anymore?"

But Jesus went anyway. There at the house He was laughed at as He stated, "The child is not dead. She is just sleeping."

Too late? Not hardly.

Nain… flip back to Luke chapter 7 and we find the widow woman and the funeral procession. The only son was being led to the tomb by his weeping widowed mother.

"Don't cry," Jesus said.

Now why in the world would you say that to a mother at her only son's funeral? Well, you would if you were Jesus and you had other plans.

"Young man, get up!"

Just imagine the body laying there suddenly gasp and sit up. The mourners are stunned and the mother's tears of sorrow are turned to tears of joy.

Tears… hmmm… "Jesus wept." That is what John records in chapter 11 of his gospel.

You know that Mary had to be thinking, "Jesus, you're too late," when she said, "Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died."

Mary's grief so moved Jesus that we see His first tears ever recorded in the Gospels. It is then that the Son of God raises a man who had been dead for four days back to life.

Too late? No, it is never too late for Jesus to work miracles in the lives of those He loves. His power transcends all bounds of time. His love surpasses all understanding, transforming the hardest of hearts and the most decided of minds.

Oh, that reminds me… the lady who felt that it was too late for her marriage? It turns out that God agreed. He felt He needed to do some work on TWO hearts. After He completed that task, He gave them back to each other as a brand new marriage.

Intersecting Faith & Life: Seek someone who is in need… a situation where, to them, things seem too late. Help them meet that need.

Further Reading

Luke 8:40-56
Luke 7:11-16
John 11:17-44
Releasing Impossibilities