Maybe I Should Try That?

"Bear in mind that our Lord's patience means salvation..."  2 Peter 3:15.

So, we already covered that I am not a 'good little Christian' in the area of waiting excitedly for Jesus' return.  But after hashing through all that I discovered that I am more ready than I thought.  Other than the few reasons I gave for not being ready I am totally excited to see what heaven is all about.  So, in this sense I am impatiently waiting.

In the verse above, however, we see that God has a very good reason for giving us some time.  This is a re-state of verse 9b earlier in this chapter, but I just really like how he states it here.  "Our Lord's patience means salvation".  Love it.

God is waiting for you and him and her and that girl and that woman and that boy and on and one.  He does not want anyone to perish, but all to come to repentance (also from vs 9), so he waits.  He has been waiting for two thousand years.  It really makes me stop and wonder how long it will be before He gets fed up with our self-loving, self-indulging, self-centered society and just say enough already.

But that is me.  Impatient.  I don't comprehend how He sees it all.  I see all the filth in this world and just get exasperated.  I get sick of seeing the smut on TV and the sadness in too many nations and get angry.  I don't see how he can put up with it.  But that is me.

I cannot comprehend His patience.  He looks upon us with grace and love, not the human eyes that I have.  Maybe if I tried to have an ounce of the patience Peter is talking about here with non-believers or even those who have the 'head knowledge' but not the 'heart relationship' of Christ I would do a better job at leading others to salvation as well.  Instead, I think I know it all and have to get them to follow me right now and turn them away.

Perhaps if I tried the patience of God it would also mean salvation?  Something to mull over a bit.  But of course, you also have to keep in mind that we do not know when Jesus will come back and we don't want to use 'patience' as an excuse not to share the gospel.  We just have to make sure that we share it with the patience of God in our hearts instead of trying to set up our own agenda in getting others to come to salvation.