When Jesus heard of the death of his good friend Lazarus, it saddened him but he did not go immediately to Bethany to restore his friend to life. Rather, he "stayed where he was for the next two days and made no move to go." How often we get impatient with one another, which is not good. But far worse still is to get impatient with God, as though he were at our beck and call. We cannot expect immediate answers to prayer. God takes his time. The world was millions of years in creation. The old axiom states that "the mills of the gods grind slowly, but they grind exceedingly fine." God often moves slowly in stark contrast to the feverish activity of little mortals. Perhaps he delays an answer to our prayer to test us, to see whether we really desire what we are requesting, or whether we have sufficient confidence that he hears. We want what we want when we want it. But a wise man has said that life is "a song of degrees"; it is a ladder, up which we must climb step by step. When we try to force things we often lose them. So Jesus first completed his work where he was, and then went to raise Lazarus. The important thing is that in the right time he did respond. We must measure life not only by our watch, but by God’s great time clock.