God's Patience Is Why You're Still Here

We spend a lot of energy talking about waiting on God. I want to turn that around this morning, because there is a side of this most of us never sit with.

What does 2 Peter say about the Lord's patience?

That it is deliberate, and it is for people.

Turn to 2 Peter 3:15. In the New Living Translation it reads, "And remember, our Lord's patience gives people time to be saved. That is what our beloved brother Paul, who wrote to you with the wisdom God gave him, has said."

So what we experience as God being slow is God holding a door open. Somebody is not through it yet. That is the reason for the pace.

Would you be saved if God had rushed?

I want you to actually answer that.

Can you imagine if God was not patient with you? Would you be saved right now?

Some of you would be dead. I am not saying that to be harsh. I am saying it because you know your own story, and you know there was a stretch of it where the only reason there was still time was that He kept giving you time.

But God is patient. Very patient with you.

Does He get tired of me?

He has not yet, and He is not now.

He knows what you are going through — the ups and the downs, the murmurings, all of it. And He is still there, urging you on by the Holy Ghost, saying, "I am going to do it."

Just wait. Wait on Him.

Here is what I want you to carry out of this. The next time you are frustrated that God has not moved on your timeline, remember that His patience is the reason you are in the room to be frustrated at all. The same patience that is making you wait is the patience that waited on you.

Give somebody else the room He gave you.