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Patience, Again.

             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.  (II Peter 3:9)

We’re back to that dreaded thing: patience. God is patient with us. It’s part of His nature. Unfortunately, it doesn’t tend to be part of ours. Oh, there are some patient people, and then there are those to whom the situation doesn’t matter and some who are passive rather than patient. It’s something we have to work on.

There are two potential keys to discuss this morning. It helps us to be patient if we have the best interests of the other person at heart. In other words, if we love them. The second is that the thing we’re waiting for is in their best interest and not ours. In short, it’s easier to be patient when it’s not all about us. Or, it’s easier to be patient when we’re actually being “like the Most High” and not like the parody of God that Satan likes to peddle.

Patience doesn’t mean “without limit.” God doesn’t let us go on living until we finally give in to Him. He doesn’t let us keep doing evil forever. But He also doesn’t generally immediately punish someone for every little wrong they do. In other words, it’s not unconditional, unending patience. Neither should ours be -but I suspect ours should be longer than it is.

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