Have you ever gotten impatient with God? Did you think that His timing is slower than you would prefer? Maybe God is not being slow to respond; instead, He is being patient so that his entire plan would come to fruition. When we learn to trust Christ’s process, we also learn patience along the way. God is patient with you.
2 Peter 3:9 NIV
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.
Patient With You
Peter does a great job of explaining God’s patience and timing. He had obviously heard enough people talk about God being slow to answer their prayers or work on their behalf. He turns it around and tells them that God’s patience is working towards people’s repentance. When we always see things from our perspective, it is easy to miss how God works.
A Day is a Thousand Years
We don’t fully understand patience. We may exhibit it in our lives from time to time, but we still don’t grasp its depth. Peter tells us that the Lord is patient. In vs. 8, Peter tells us that to the Lord, a day is like a thousand years and a thousand years like a day. God lives outside of time. He is not burdened with getting things done according to our schedule. That works in our favor as he is patient, not slow.
Recognize Your Need for Him
Jesus’ greatest desire is that people recognize their need for Him. There are those we would’ve given up on long ago, yet God is still patient with them. We scratch our heads and wonder why? God isn’t interested in judging people but instead seeing people repent of their sins. He desires that all of us come to a saving relationship with him. He wants to rescue us from our sins and start walking down a path of turning us into his image. If you haven’t given your life to Jesus, do it now. Ask him to forgive your sins, come into your life, and make you a new person. You won’t regret it.