The Lord is not slow
about his promises,
as some think about slowness,
but is patient with you
not wanting any to perish,
but all to come to repentance.
2 Peter 3:9
We live in a world of quick grits, instant messaging, and video-on-demand. Multi-tasking is part of life. And we are perturbed if a teenager at the fast food window dares to tell us to wait a minute.
It's not a surprise that we carry our watches into our prayer life. We want what we want when we want it. We subtly but daily demand that God conform to our schedule.
When God began to tell King David that his line would reign forever, David and his ancestors started checking off days on their calendar. But bringing his plan to fruition wasn't like stirring up a serving of minute rice. It took a full thousand years -- and God's perfect timing -- for the Messiah to arrive.
We can argue with God about timing, but "the Lord is not slow as some think about slowness." We could say that "with the Lord one day is like a thousand years and a thousand years are like one day." (That's the verse before today's verse.) But there's a better answer to this. "The Lord ... is patient."
Now make it personal -- "The Lord ... is patient with you."
When we did a full-year study on Revelation, we noticed a pattern:
- God would act (and usually his end times actions were big and bold and splashed across the sky).
- And then he would wait.
- Then he would act again.
- Then he would wait.
Why? He is patient! It took a thousand years from promise to Messiah. It's taken two thousand years from Messiah to to today. Why? He is "not wanting any to perish."
- He acts in our world ... and then in our own lives.
- Then he waits.
- He acts.
- And then he waits.
- He loves, speaks, invites, encourages, and draws you to him.
- And then he hopes you respond.
- And if you don't he keep acting again and again.
We're not patient. Thank God he is!
In Christ's Love,
a guy who needs
to take off his watch
and just abide
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