To Encourage You

2 Peter 3:9 “The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance.”

So many people are crying out for justice today.  After the George Floyd incident, we saw thousands of people marching not only in the cities across America, but also in cities around the world.  I can remember a time many years ago when I was spending time in prayer and thinking about all the injustice and wickedness in the world. Everywhere we look there are murders, rapes, racism, people taking advantage of the weak, child abuse, etc., etc.  I remember wondering as I was praying that day, “Why don’t you end it all God? Why don’t you mete out justice?!”  But immediately the thought hit me, a thought that has stayed with me since that day – “My patience.” 

It’s this wonderful truth about God that is expressed in the verse above.  Here the Bible is telling us that God is faithful to His promises, each and every one of them. So often we have pleasant thoughts about this truth, for when we think of the promises of God, we typically think of the wonderful things He has promised those who have put their faith in Him – things like eternal life, joy, peace, and the provision of all our needs. But there are other promises in God’s Word about things we might not like to think about as much, but they are promises that are every bit as certain to be fulfilled by Him.

You see, the verse above is talking about God’s promise of justice.  It is excerpted from a passage about the day of the Lord. Listen to it in its context: “This is now the second letter that I am writing to you, beloved. In both of them I am stirring up your sincere mind by way of reminder, that you should remember the predictions of the holy prophets and the commandment of the Lord and Savior through your apostles, knowing this first of all, that scoffers will come in the last days with scoffing, following their own sinful desires. They will say, ‘Where is the promise of his coming? For ever since the fathers fell asleep, all things are continuing as they were from the beginning of creation.’ For they deliberately overlook this fact, that the heavens existed long ago, and the earth was formed out of water and through water by the word of God, and that by means of these the world that then existed was deluged with water and perished. But by the same word the heavens and earth that now exist are stored up for fire, being kept until the day of judgment and destruction of the ungodly. But do not overlook this one fact, beloved, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance. But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, and then the heavens will pass away with a roar, and the heavenly bodies will be burned up and dissolved, and the earth and the works that are done on it will be exposed” (2 Peter 3:1-10). 

You see, truth be told, people probably don’t really want God’s justice, but it will be meted out, nevertheless. God will judge every sin. He will bring great devastation upon all those who have rejected Him and His offer of forgiveness as a free gift based on the sacrificial death of His only begotten Son.  This judgment is as sure as the judgment of the flood in Noah’s day was sure. Yet, in God’s great patience and longing that people would turn from their sin and not perish, He waits.  And so Peter ends his letter in the following way, urging unbelievers to not mock the patience of God but to repent while there is yet time. And he encourages believers to live a life that glorifies God, the God Who in His great grace waits: “Since all these things are thus to be dissolved, what sort of people ought you to be in lives of holiness and godliness, waiting for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be set on fire and dissolved, and the heavenly bodies will melt as they burn! But according to His promise we are waiting for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells. Therefore, beloved, since you are waiting for these, be diligent to be found by Him without spot or blemish, and at peace. And count the patience of our Lord as salvation, just as our beloved brother Paul also wrote to you according to the wisdom given him” (2 Peter 3:11-15).

Yes, the Lord is faithful to every one of His promises. Are you living as if that is indeed true?