2 Peter
2 Peter 3:8-10This truth is really rocking me right now. After driving home a message of pursuing knowledge of Christ and holy living amidst a world that ignorantly seeks its own destruction, Peter throws in this curve ball to help his audience understand why endurance and patience are so crucial to God’s plan. God sees time not as we see it… for it is outside God’s more sovereign purpose… that every person he has created would reach repentance. When thinking about this I realized how very selfish I am in my impatience with things. Reality is that this world and everything in it is going to be lost… only the righteous in Christ will remain… and God’s heart is that all would be those who would remain. God is not in heaven seeking people to devour… this truth clearly seen in Christ’s ultimate act of merciful sacrifice on the cross. God desires us to find life. I realize how selfish I am when I think that I would like God to speed things up for my own personal gain… looking to God to bless me as I desire when others are perishing every day. Reality is that the people around me who do not know Christ are in bondage now… and will suffer eternal torment if they do not repent of their sins and place their faith in Christ for salvation. This is reality and I am too selfish and ignorant to even see it. As I read this passage my heart broke, as I write this now my heart is breaking just thinking about this truth. It is overwhelming to realize that it is only by grace that I am not ignorant of Christ… it is only by undeserved mercy that I see Christ and have received hope of eternal glory through him. Yeah, these people are dying right before my very eyes and I don’t care… I don’t even think about it… I simply ask God for myself or the people that I care about to have more of his life. While that isn’t necessarily a bad thing I do realize also that God’s heart breaks for these people. As I see who Christ is and as I grow in knowledge of him I feel this connection to his heart that I deeply desire more of. In this truth I realize how much I don’t understand about God. Interestingly though my heart is comforted and encouraged that God desires that all would reach repentance… it shows me again how amazing my God is. If he cares for these that reject him then how much more could he care for me, his adopted son? How could I want more from him when others have not even reached repentance and will perish because of it? I cannot reckon in my mind how this all works but I see my heart being transformed for the lost and I am so very grateful.
I don’t know how to exactly apply this… to be honest at this point I feel like I am trying to apply all these things I am learning and I don’t know how to think of more things. Over Christmas I realized that my heart is growing more and more broken for my sister who is lost. As this was happening I realized that my heart was breaking more and more for those I know who are lost. Now I am beginning to see my heart break for everyone who is lost… and I thank God that he is trying to teach me humility. In my quiet times of prayer I have been constantly asking God to show me what he desires, trying to shut up and really seek what he wants… and here I see that he wishes all to reach repentance. I can pray for that... I can cry out for God to bring people to repentance in agreement… I can pray for those whom I have met or will meet who don’t know him. Yeah, that will be a good application… I can do that… because, yeah, I haven’t deserved the grace given me and I also don’t want them to perish.
(I found a website where you can make your own superheros so this is what I envision myself like as a superhero ninja... *shrug*)
