Bible Verse of the Day Wednesday June 21st, 2023

2 Peter 3:9 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.

There will always be times of persecution and difficulties in our Christian Walk. However, we must temper those times with the knowledge that there are millions of lost people around us. Many are in our sphere of influence or close friends and family members. Our excitement and enthusiasm for the coming of Christ Jesus back to the earth must equal our passion for sharing the gospel with the lost souls who have not yet come to repentance and surrender to Christ Jesus. As Children of God, we must commit to helping others come to the saving grace of Christ Jesus. God is not blameworthy in His transactions with the world. God moves according to His timetable, not ours. There is an immeasurable divergence between our timetable and God's timetable, and we cannot inflict our agenda upon God. What humanity counts as belatedness is something entirely different; it is God's incredible and fantastic patience with the world's people.

None of us enjoy waiting for one of our friends that might be running a bit late. In infinity, God has never been late, not once; he is on time every time. We should strive to follow God's example of this characteristic in our walk here. God possesses a longsuffering with the people of the world that carry out a negative preference towards Him. God will never violate our free will; He created us as free people and will always respect that action. We sometimes suffer from the "I want it now syndrome" when God tells us that it is always in His will and time. God has a particular advantage over us because He can see the future, whereas we can only speculate what tomorrow might bring.

God desires that no one perishes; He wants everyone to come to Christ Jesus's saving knowledge. However, God understands not all will come to repentance, and many will perish (Matthew 7:13-14). Some say there must be a contradiction here in this verse (2 Peter 3:9). However, this verse being a contradiction, is far from the truth. God's election and calling all people to the Himself is clear evidence that He does not want anyone to perish and desires that all come to the truth of the saving grace of what Jesus did on the Cross for all humankind. If it were not for this calling of God to all people in the world, everyone would perish (John 6:44, Romans 8:29-30).