Steadfast Day 15: 2 Peter 3:8-9

Read 2 Peter 3:8-9.

Ponder

I teach a first grade life group class at my church. One Sunday, after a particularly harrowing class with some of our students, the substitute helping me that day said, “You’re so patient with them.” 

I don’t know if I disguised my surprise very well because, truth be told, I felt anything but patient. My goal was that my students would learn just a little more about God’s character in each class, and I wasn’t sure they’d learned anything on this particular Sunday except how to push my buttons. I may have looked patient on the outside, but on the inside I was frantic. 

I may sometimes have the appearance of patience, but as we turn our attention to today’s passage, God embodies patience. The scoffers from yesterday’s study may have looked at the world and seen a God who didn’t intervene, but Peter’s reminder in 2 Peter 3:8-9 is clear: don’t confuse patience for inaction.

After refuting the scoffers’ argument in verses 3-7, Peter turned his attention back to his readers. The world around them may have been proclaiming that Jesus wasn’t coming back, but Peter didn’t want his failure to appear according to our time table to dampen their faith. “Just because God isn’t working as quickly as you’d like,” Peter seemed to be saying, “doesn’t mean he isn’t working.” 

Peter further expanded on the idea in verse 9, stressing that while to us God may appear slow to act, his delay is really merciful patience. God’s desire is for people to repent and turn to him so they may be saved from the day of judgment, so he delays to give us more time to respond. 

I’ve been complemented on my patience with children on several occasions, but the reality is that I’m not actually a very patient person. I get impatient in traffic. I want to buy things in an instant rather than stop and think rationally about the purchase. When I’m sick, I just want to be better this instant. 

Thankfully, the God we serve isn’t like that. To a world that doubts God’s love and wonders why he doesn’t intervene in the messes we have made, 2 Peter 3:8-9 offers a reason. He wants us to see our need for him, turn away from trying to save ourselves, and put our trust and hope in him. 

Let’s take him at his word today. 

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Journal

• Have you ever felt impatient with God, wondering when he would intervene in your life? What did God teach you about himself in that season? 

• Think about your life. How has God been patient with you in the past? This week? 

• How did God display patience in your salvation? 

• Think about the situations and circumstances in your life that you know need God’s intervention. How can you seek to trust him in those situations, even if it doesn’t happen in the timeframe you think it should?