God is not slow in keeping His promise as some understand slowness. He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance. II Peter 3:9 (NIV)
Y’all, help me out here. I can’t possibly be the only one who, when reheating something in the microwave, gives the handle an impatient tug to stop it with only seconds left before the blessed beep of readiness.
The mere fact that a modern day microwave comes equipped with a ‘+ 30 seconds’ option is telling… Otherwise, I’d have to go to the trouble to select ‘Time cook’ followed by a ‘3’ and a ‘0’, and finally ‘start’ before the heating process began.
Poor me.
The grocery curbside pickup? The instant I pull into my chosen spot, why do they make me wait a bit rather than rush out to my car with stuff?
Why is everything and everyone so s-l-o-w??
Maybe the underlying question inside my soul is, “God, why are You so slow?”
His answer is swift.
He is not slow in keeping His promise as some understand slowness. He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance. II Peter 3:9
God isn’t bound by time. He has no need to set an alarm or use a calendar to plan His days.
With the Lord, a day is like a thousand years and a thousand years are like a day. (vs 8) For the rest of us, a day is measured in twenty-four hours and a thousand years is, well, a number of days beyond what my brain wants to configure.
God’s ‘slowness’ is purposeful and loving and good. He is providing time for more and more people to come to repentance. His ‘slowness’ enables me to consider those whose eternity with Jesus is not yet secure and pray for their repentance before His sure and certain return.
His slowness allows me to focus on how I’m living rather than on my need for relief from present difficulty. Can I say with confidence that I consistently live the holy and godly and, uh, patient life that He desires? (vs 11)
Praise God for His slowness! He’s providing time for adjustment before He returns.
Because on the day of the Lord’s return, everything and everybody will be destroyed by fire to make way for a new heaven and a new earth, a home of righteousness (vs 13).
When His ‘slowness’ has run its course, how will He find us living? And who has He placed in our sphere of influence who might be the object of His ‘slowness’?
Mary
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✏️ Two of my 2019 inspirational articles that were published in Refresh, Online Bible Study Magazine, are featured in this 40 short Bible studies compilation, The Power to Make a Difference Available on Amazon.