August 29, 2023

Scripture: 2 Peter 3:9 – “The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. Instead, He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.”

What it means

Here’s kind of a follow-up to our “grace card” discussion that we had on Sunday.  The Apostle Paul is specifically referring to our impatience as humans in waiting for The Lord to come back.  Just think, this was only a few years after Jesus , walked this earth, and people back then were growing impatient in waiting for Him to come back…imagine the level of impatience that we display these days, especially for something that has been in the making for 2,000 years! In our humanity, it is easy to somehow think that The Lord is “slow in keeping His promise”, and begin to grow restless in somehow thinking that God is reneging on His promise to return.  However…another way to look at this is to consider the fact that God is displaying incredible patience in trying to give as many of us the opportunity to accept Him as our Lord and Savior.  He’s giving out grace cards in bulk so that we can have every possible opportunity to repent of our sins and join Him for eternity…so when we consider it from that angle…I’m in 😊

What it means to me

You all know that patience isn’t one of my spiritual gifts, to say the least.  Having to wait on basically anything is painful for me, but I’m actually okay with waiting on The Lord in this instance.  Our former pastor at Alcoa, Joe Green, used to talk about people coming up to him and saying “Aren’t you anxious for The Lord to return?” Joe would always respond “No, not yet…” After the puzzled looks that came next, he would clarify… “I have several relatives that haven’t given their life to Christ, so…I need more time.”  That always impressed me…never thinking solely about himself and “not wanting anyone to perish” in his family.  We should all be the same – if you have family members who haven’t committed their lives to Christ yet, be bold and look for opportunities to share and witness to them.  Don’t panic – be thankful that God is patient with us and gives us every opportunity to repent!

Love you guys, talk to you on Thursday!

In Christ,

Brian