THE TEDIUM OF WAITING
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Opening Prayer
Loving Lord, thank you for your faithfulness, for keeping your every promise as you have been at work in and through me. Thank you for using your Word and gifting me with your Spirit, enabling me to grow closer to you.
Read 2 PETER 3:10–18
For additional translations of the passage, use this link to Bible Gateway.
10 But the day of the Lord will come like a thief. The heavens will disappear with a roar; the elements will be destroyed by fire, and the earth and everything done in it will be laid bare.
11 Since everything will be destroyed in this way, what kind of people ought you to be? You ought to live holy and godly lives 12 as you look forward to the day of God and speed its coming. That day will bring about the destruction of the heavens by fire, and the elements will melt in the heat. 13 But in keeping with his promise we are looking forward to a new heaven and a new earth, where righteousness dwells.
14 So then, dear friends, since you are looking forward to this, make every effort to be found spotless, blameless and at peace with him. 15 Bear in mind that our Lord’s patience means salvation, just as our dear brother Paul also wrote you with the wisdom that God gave him. 16 He writes the same way in all his letters, speaking in them of these matters. His letters contain some things that are hard to understand, which ignorant and unstable people distort, as they do the other Scriptures, to their own destruction.
17 Therefore, dear friends, since you have been forewarned, be on your guard so that you may not be carried away by the error of the lawless and fall from your secure position. 18 But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To him be glory both now and forever! Amen.
Reflect
‘In their hearts humans plan their course, but the Lord establishes their steps.’1
Waiting is a common experience for many of us. We may have invested many years to complete formal education, even more than expected. Some of us may be recovering from major surgery or struggling with fiendishly complicated financial, legal, and emotional issues that impair our ability to achieve goals. There are times when we have no control over what happens in life. What we can control, however, is our response, even as we long for our ‘desired haven’.2 Today’s passage states that the body of Jesus Christ collectively (across time and even space!) awaits God’s perfectly designed new heavens and new earth. This will only come about through cataclysmic events of—yes—biblical proportions.
We have a major role to play in these events, Peter assures us. God has unusual expectations from his people. After all, the meaning of verse 11 is to prepare for this day (which is sure to come) by encouraging us to focus on the way we live and our inner being. This may sound pious, but the larger counsel of Scripture has much to say about our involvement in being the ‘salt of the earth’.3 The implications of these verses may seem debatable to some of us, yet our character, our attitude, and constantly saturating ourselves with the standards and promises in the Bible will prepare us for the cataclysmic events that have been foretold.
Before concluding this sweeping but concise epistle, Peter reiterates his pastoral and apostolic concern for the welfare of his readers: that you and I should not lose our ‘secure position’ (v. 17). How fitting a phrase in juxtaposition to that used to describe those he first addressed as the ‘elect, exiles, scattered’.4 Yes, stability is possible—even for scattered elect like us.
Apply
Write down three resolutions based on three verses (from 1 and 2 Peter). Pray that these words will anchor your identity and purpose according to God’s view of what matters.
Closing prayer
Father in Heaven, help me live my life in ways that proclaim your glory and show others my reasons for joy because of Christ.
1 Prov 16:9 2 Ps 107:30 3 Matt 5:13 4 1 Pet 1:1.
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