“He Is Being Patient For Your Sake”
This
is my second letter to you, dear friends, and in both of them I have tried to
stimulate your wholesome thinking and refresh your memory. I want you to
remember what the holy prophets said long ago and what our Lord and Savior
commanded through your apostles.
Most importantly, I
want to remind you that in the last days scoffers will
come, mocking the truth and following their own desires. They will say, “What
happened to the promise that Jesus is coming again? From before the times of
our ancestors, everything has remained the same since the world was first
created.”
They deliberately
forget that God made the heavens by the word of his command, and he brought the
earth out from the water and surrounded it with water. Then he used the water
to destroy the ancient world with a mighty flood. And by the same word, the
present heavens and earth have been stored up for fire. They are being kept for
the day of judgment, when ungodly people will be
destroyed.
But you must not
forget this one thing, dear friends: A day is like a thousand years to the
Lord, and a thousand years is like a day. The Lord isn’t really being slow
about his promise, as some people think. No, he is being patient for your sake.
He does not want anyone to be destroyed, but wants everyone to repent. But the
day of the Lord will come as unexpectedly as a thief. Then the heavens will
pass away with a terrible noise, and the very elements themselves will
disappear in fire, and the earth and everything on it will be found to deserve
judgment.
Since everything
around us is going to be destroyed like this, what holy and godly lives you
should live, looking forward to the day of God and hurrying it along. On that
day, he will set the heavens on fire, and the elements will melt away in the
flames. But we are looking forward to the new heavens and new earth he has
promised, a world filled with God’s righteousness.
2 Peter
2:1-13
As humans we believe
things will continue indefinitely. Life is not like that, neither is wealth, or
family, or work.
We do not know when
our own end times will take place. Are you ready? Are you prepared? Are you
ready to meet Jesus, face to face?
Jesus may
come at any time, so we should be ready all the time.
Our Daily Bread –