Is God Procrastinating?

2 Peter 3:8–10 NKJV

But, beloved, do not forget this one thing, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance. But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night, in which the heavens will pass away with a great noise, and the elements will melt with fervent heat; both the earth and the works that are in it will be burned up.

Is God Procrastinating?

"Patience may be a virtue, but it’s no longer a reality," said Maria Veltre, senior vice president and chief marketing officer, Fifth Third Bank. "In our increasingly fast-paced society, every second counts.

96 percent of Americans will knowingly consume extremely hot food or drink that burns their mouth; 63 percent do so frequently

More than half hang up the phone after being on hold one minute or less

71 percent frequently exceed the speed limit to get to their destination faster

Americans will binge-watch an average of seven TV episodes in a single sitting

Nearly a third of respondents ages 18-24 wait less than one second before bypassing a slow walker

Gen Yers check their phones an average of eight times when waiting to hear back from someone they’ve dated

When waiting for a table at a restaurant, nearly a quarter of respondents ages 18-24 wait less than one minute before approaching the host again after the wait period has passed 

God’s Patience

When Robert Ingersoll, the famous atheist, was lecturing, he once took out his watch and declared, “I will give God five minutes to strike me dead for the things I have said.” The minutes ticked off as he held the watch and waited. In about four-and-a-half minutes, some women began fainting, but nothing happened. When the five minutes were up, Ingersoll put the watch into his pocket. When that incident reached the ears of a certain preacher, Joseph Parker, he asked, “And did the gentleman think he could exhaust the patience of the Eternal God in five minutes?”

G. Curtis Jones, 1000 Illustrations for Preaching and Teaching, 147

Does it ever seem as if God is waiting too long to come back to earth?

The New King James Version Chapter 3

8 But, beloved, do not forget this one thing, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. 9 The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance.

10 But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night, in which the heavens will pass away with a great noise, and the elements will melt with fervent heat; both the earth and the works that are in it will be burned up.

Waiting Makes Us Forget

A Handbook on the Second Letter From Peter 2 Peter 3:8

But do not ignore this one fact recalls verse 5 and deliberately contrasts the attitude of the false teachers with the attitude that the readers of this letter should have. Ignore translates the same word in both verses: in verse 5 the false teachers are accused of deliberate ignorance or neglect; in verse 8 the readers are urged not to do this. Furthermore, in the Greek the plural pronoun “you” is used in verse 8 and placed in the emphatic position, “don’t you ignore,” thus contrasting it with “they” in verse 5; the sense is something like “you yourselves must not do what these false teachers deliberately do.”

How Does an Atomic Clock Work?

How Accurate Are Atomic Clocks?

Why Do We Need Atomic Clocks?

Maybe that is another purpose for the Sabbath - the Sabbath is an opportunity to synchronize our timing with God’s timing. It is a chance to calibrate our expectations of time within the context of eternity. Each week, eternity breaks through the mundane and realigns us with Redemptions rythmns, calls us back to God’s patient progression from the Fall to ultimate Restoration.

The New American Commentary: 1, 2 Peter, Jude 2. The Lord’s Timing Is Different from Ours (3:8–10)

In Psalm 90 the eternity of God is contrasted with the temporality of human beings (cf. also Sir 18:9–11; 2 Apoc. Bar. 48:12–13). The lives of human beings are short and frail, but God does not weaken or fail with the passage of time. In one sense the marking of time is irrelevant to God because he transcends it. Peter applied this insight to the coming of the Lord. If the passing of time does not diminish God in any way and if he transcends time so that its passing does not affect his being, then believers should not be concerned about the so-called delay of Christ’s coming. The passing of a thousand years, after all, is like the passing of a single day to him. Bigg nicely captures the idea: “The desire of the Psalmist is to contrast the eternity of God with the short span of human life. What St. Peter wishes is to contrast the eternity of God with the impatience of human expectations.”

Psalm 90 NKJV

A Prayer Of Moses the Man of God. Lord, You have been our dwelling place in all generations. Before the mountains were brought forth, Or ever You had formed the earth and the world, Even from everlasting to everlasting, You are God. You turn man to destruction, And say, “Return, O children of men.” For a thousand years in Your sight Are like yesterday when it is past, And like a watch in the night. You carry them away like a flood; They are like a sleep. In the morning they are like grass which grows up: In the morning it flourishes and grows up; In the evening it is cut down and withers. For we have been consumed by Your anger, And by Your wrath we are terrified. You have set our iniquities before You, Our secret sins in the light of Your countenance. For all our days have passed away in Your wrath; We finish our years like a sigh. The days of our lives are seventy years; And if by reason of strength they are eighty years, Yet their boast is only labor and sorrow; For it is soon cut off, and we fly away. Who knows the power of Your anger? For as the fear of You, so is Your wrath. So teach us to number our days, That we may gain a heart of wisdom. Return, O Lord! How long? And have compassion on Your servants. Oh, satisfy us early with Your mercy, That we may rejoice and be glad all our days! Make us glad according to the days in which You have afflicted us, The years in which we have seen evil. Let Your work appear to Your servants, And Your glory to their children. And let the beauty of the Lord our God be upon us, And establish the work of our hands for us; Yes, establish the work of our hands.

It’s not that we don’t know; it’s that we tend to forget

What God Doesn’t Forget

Luke 12:6 NKJV

“Are not five sparrows sold for two copper coins? And not one of them is forgotten before God.

Hebrews 6:10 NKJV

For God is not unjust to forget your work and labor of love which you have shown toward His name, in that you have ministered to the saints, and do minister.

What We Should Forget

Philippians 3:13 NKJV

Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended; but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead,

What We Shouldn’t Forget

For God is not unjust to forget your work and labor of love which you have shown toward His name, in that you have ministered to the saints, and do minister.

Hebrews 12:5 NKJV

And you have forgotten the exhortation which speaks to you as to sons: “My son, do not despise the chastening of the Lord, Nor be discouraged when you are rebuked by Him;

Hebrews 13:2 NKJV

Do not forget to entertain strangers, for by so doing some have unwittingly entertained angels.

Hebrews 13:6 NKJV

So we may boldly say: “The Lord is my helper; I will not fear. What can man do to me?”

Hebrews 13:16 NKJV

But do not forget to do good and to share, for with such sacrifices God is well pleased.

James 1:24–25 NKJV

for he observes himself, goes away, and immediately forgets what kind of man he was. But he who looks into the perfect law of liberty and continues in it, and is not a forgetful hearer but a doer of the work, this one will be blessed in what he does.

2 Peter 1:9 NKJV

For he who lacks these things is shortsighted, even to blindness, and has forgotten that he was cleansed from his old sins.

2 Peter 3:5 NKJV

For this they willfully forget: that by the word of God the heavens were of old, and the earth standing out of water and in the water,

Our ignorance of God’s timing leads us to lose patience and lack preparedness. We didn’t realize we have to have reserves for the long haul yet when God is ready, He moves lightening fast.

The paradox is that people who have problems with the long haul will be the same people who will be surprised when Jesus actually returns. We can’t endure the wait like God, yet never are we as prepared to leave like God.

The New American Commentary: 1, 2 Peter, Jude 2. The Lord’s Timing Is Different from Ours (3:8–10)

Peter, like all the New Testament writers, did not prescribe when Christ returns or set a certain date. He preserved the tension between the imminence of Christ’s coming and the uncertainty about when he will come.

This Day with God Prayer Power, June 27

It is a marvel to me that God will bear with the perversity of the children of men so long, bearing with their disobedience and yet suffering them to live, abusing His mercies, bearing false witness against Him in most wicked statements. But God’s ways are not as our ways, and we will not marvel at His loving forbearance and tender pity and infinite compassion, for He has given an unmistakable evidence that this is just like His character—slow to anger, showing mercy unto thousands of those who love Him and keep His commandments.

The sad thing is that if we forget to put God’s timing in the equation, we - believers in the mercy of God, the judgement of God - like the scoffers may conclude that God cannot be trusted.

His timing gives us perspective - the delay is one of mission. God is deeply invested in the salvation of every soul. This is a conclusion born out by love and an experience with God. It’s the love that sees the very heart of God. It’s the experience that is able to rightly illuminate what is the character of God.

We have to acknowledge people’s frustrations with faith but we should always point them to a clearer picture of God’s plan

It looks like slackness - to allow the world to run totally out of control. Some people are more concerned about God looking true to the world than for him being compassionate. They are passionate but not compassionate.

1001 Illustrations that Connect Illustration 745: Waiting Lessons

Henri Nouwen said, “Waiting is a period of learning. The longer we wait, the more we hear about him for whom we are waiting.”

Eugene Peterson’s paraphrase of Romans 8:24 resonates with Nouwen: “Waiting does not diminish us any more than waiting diminishes a pregnant mother. We are enlarged in the waiting” (The Message).

1001 Illustrations that Connect Illustration 854: Waiting in Trust

The Flying Roudellas, who were trapeze artists, said there is a special relationship between flyer and catcher on the trapeze. The flyer is the one who lets go, and the catcher is the one who catches.

As the flyer swings high above the crowd on the trapeze, the moment comes when he must let go. He arcs out into the air. His job is to remain as still as possible and wait for the strong hands of the catcher to pluck him from the air.

The flyer must never try to catch the catcher but must wait in absolute trust. The catcher will catch him, but he must wait.

—John Ortberg, “Waiting on God,” Preaching Today Audio, no. 199

We must grow our minds to allow for God’s promise to be fulfilled in ways totally different from what we heard or even preach. Jonah’s experience as a prophet screams - I am waiting for the cities to be destroyed.

The New King James Version Chapter 1

Now the word of the LORD came to Jonah the son of Amittai, saying, 2 “Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and cry out against it; for their wickedness has come up before Me.”

The New King James Version Chapter 3

Now the word of the LORD came to Jonah the second time, saying, 2 “Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and preach to it the message that I tell you.” 3 So Jonah arose and went to Nineveh, according to the word of the LORD. Now Nineveh was an exceedingly great city, a three-day journey in extent. 4 And Jonah began to enter the city on the first day’s walk. Then he cried out and said, “Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown!”

The New King James Version Chapter 4

So Jonah went out of the city and sat on the east side of the city. There he made himself a shelter and sat under it in the shade, till he might see what would become of the city.

http://www.npr.org/2017/08/29/546834292/flood-of-texas-navy-private-citizens-help-in-houston-rescue-efforts

Flood Of 'Texas Navy' Private Citizens Help In Houston Rescue Efforts

All over Houston, you see what is being called the Texas Navy: private citizens pulling their fishing boats behind pickups. They're launching their vessels at the water's edge, which could be anywhere that a street becomes a bayou. Harris County Judge Ed Emmett put out an extraordinary call Sunday. He said the fire department, Coast Guard and police are overwhelmed — they need people to help their neighbors. And folks have responded.

"I've been able to rescue 10 to 15 people at a time. Yesterday was a very good day. We rescued 53 people into the night," says Ray Ortega, an oilfield tool salesman, who drove up from his home in Victoria pulling a 23-foot fishing boat that he usually uses in the Gulf to go after speckled trout and redfish. Ortega was looking for a place to launch his boat and rescue more people.

The New King James Version Chapter 3

But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night, in which the heavens will pass away with a great noise, and the elements will melt with fervent heat; both the earth and the works that are in it will be burned up.

No matter how much time given, for some sadly that day will catch them shockingly unprepared. They gave up. They moved on. They stopped looking. They were caught sleeping. They traded in their faith. And so when that day came, they weren’t ready.

That day will come. And the irony is, the scoffers will be caught entirely by surprise. Isn’t that ironic - the ones who are so impatient with God’s delay will be unprepared for God’s appearance. But it makes sense that they would not be ready, because they have already been fooled so many times by God’s coming, they were no longer on the look out for God.

Patience may be a virtue, but it’s no longer a reality.

Delay is often the test and the strength of faith. How much patience is required when these times of testing come! Yet faith gathers strength by waiting and praying. Patience has its perfect work in the school of delay. - E. M. Bounds

E. M. Bounds

The delay of your mercies is really for your advantage.… The foolish child would pluck the apple while it is green, but when it is ripe, it drops of its own accord, and is more pleasant and wholesome. - John Flavel

The way to overcome is by patience, forgiving and praying for your enemies, in doing which you heap coals upon their heads, and your Lord shall open a door to you in your troubles. Wait upon Him, as the night watch waits for the morning. He will not tarry. Go up to your watchtower, and do not come down; but by prayer, and faith, and hope, wait on. When the sea is full, it will ebb again; and as soon as the wicked have come to the top of their pride, and are waxed high and mighty, then is their change approaching. Those who believe do not make haste. - Samuel Rutherford