Week One
November 29, 2021
A Patient God
2 Peter 3
But do not forget this one thing, dear friends: With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day. 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: 8-9 (NIV)
This has been a whirlwind of a year. If I were to write this devotion in the beginning of the summer, like I had planned, when COVID seemed to be under control, I would have written about hope in the movement of the Holy. People were getting vaccinated, ICUs stopped being overrun. It would have seemed like a great analogy as the coming of the Lord mostly represents hope to me. I think about being a child sick in school and having the nurse tell me that my mother was coming to get me. I knew that when she came, she would make things better.
But now, it is the end of the summer. Delta variant is more easily spread affecting many who chose not to get vaccinated to protect themselves and the more vulnerable around them that could not get vaccinated and in my county, the hospitals are more overrun than they have ever been. I am tired of humanity.
Now I feel like the little sister that has been mistreated and threaten my assailant by saying, “My big brother is coming for you! I knew that he would make things better and get ‘em!”
Thankfully, we are not under my control. Peter tells us that we are under the control of a more patient God. 2 Peter tells us that God is not slow, but patient and giving humanity time to get it right. That means that we have the ability to change course and do what is right. Maybe God believes we can get it right and I should too.
Dr. Annie Lockhart Gilroy
Assistant Professor of Christian Education and Practical Theology
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
