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.” 2 Peter 3:9

In this verse, Peter’s defending Jesus against false teachers who encouraged immorality because they said He’s taking too long to return. It’s ironic how long it takes us to get around to living right while accusing God of being slow. It’s comical that we think we’re the ones being patient with Him. 

In April of last year, I heard a verse so many times that I knew God gave it to me because of a difficult decision I had to make. Here’s how I heard Exodus 14:13, “Stand still, stand firm, and watch what God will do.” 

Two weeks into it and I mentioned how patient I’d been. What was the holdup? What was taking so long? 

When my friend mentioned back that my situation could take months to resolve, I wanted to knock her into next week. I could tell she stopped short from saying “maybe even years.” I felt agitated by God’s timing, never looking at how I drug my feet for a decade. 

It took me months to wakeup to the fact that God asked me a long time ago to get out of His way – to stand still, stand firm, and watch what He would do, but I didn’t. 

He waited on me for years. All the while, I felt impatient because of how patient I thought I’d already been.  

Just out of curiosity, I looked up our beginning verse at BibleRef.com. It said, “Peter insists that we cannot apply human demands about time to the promises of God. He is not slow in keeping His promise. God is the one who made the schedule: He cannot be ‘late.’”

Lysa TerKeurst said, “God loves us too much to answer our prayer at any other time than the right time.”

It reminds me of the prayer, “Oh Lord, give me patience … NOW.”  

Instead of thinking we’re waiting on God, we may want to look at the dozens of places in our lives where He’s waiting on us. 

The places we’re disobedient because we want our own way. 

The places we’re procrastinating instead of working toward our purpose. 

The places we’re being defiant even though He’s asked us to do it differently.

I remember the day I prayed for a different job. Within a week, I heard a woman in a book study say, “I asked God for a different job and He said, ‘Then give up the one you have.’” 

She visited from out of town with some friends, which made hearing from her stranger than usual. It seemed I’d gotten my answer from a stranger I never saw before and I’d never see again – maybe an angel. As much as her message sounded like it came from God, it also sounded unreasonable, reckless, and scary. I ignored what she said and kept right on applying for job after job after job. 

When I finally turned in my notice abruptly (one year later), I received a call from a local university that I had not applied to. I worked there for 15 years at a job I loved so much, I would have done it for free. 

What are we waiting for? Instead of questioning God’s timing, we may want to figure out how we’re the holdup in our own plans. 

I hope you’ll leave a comment and join our conversation. 

In This Together,
Kim

Thanks to my Sunday School class for the blog topic and to Pixabay.com for the cute image.