Why doesn’t God just hurry up and fix our problem or give us the blessing we need now?
“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.” 2 Pet 3:8. NIV.
FORGET
We do forget. The Bible and man’s history are full of examples of how we forget the Lord’s great wonders and awesome blessings. We need to keep reminding ourselves and others of God's goodness.
King James uses the word "ignorant." We are very ignorant of God and His ways. In our foolishness, we make rash decisions and judgments; we criticize God and make demands of Him. If we knew Him better, we would be different people. It is wise to admit we know very little about God and His ways.
TIME
God is not on our timetable. We interpret His delays to act in many ways, such as our sin has robbed us of His favor, or that His love toward us is gone, or that maybe we have lost our salvation. God is not in a hurry- we just need to wait. He sees the end from a beginning that is over distant galactic horizons. His purposes are higher than our need to be free from a problem or our desire for a blessing.
It is a wonder and a terrific comfort that God is not bound by our ideas of the time- if, in fact, He dwells in time at all! For as creator of time, He must be outside it. It is a comfort that He is not trapped in time or subject to it and a testimony of his greatness.
A GOD OF LOVE
In the KJV, the verse begins with "Beloved." But, beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing, that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day."You sense he is speaking kindly and fatherly to his followers and calls them "beloved. Peter is speaking to the Christians whom he loves, but the "beloved" is not just Peter's beloved, but we are God’s beloved. God, in His love, ordains time to serve his purposes and be a blessing to us.
We can't hurry God, and we can't out-wait him, but we can do something better; we can trust in his love.
(c) Adron 4/20/11
