DAILY READING
REFLECTION
Lord, Give Me Patience - Right Now!
by Kristin Schoeff
How many people do you know who consider patience their strongest virtue? Does anyone like being told they need to wait a while for something they need?
Two phrases in today’s passage strike me every time I read it: “in due time” in verse 6, and “a little while” in verse 10. There’s a lot of meat in between, but it’s sandwiched between assertions of God’s work in our lives in His own sense of time.
To give us this heavenly perspective, consider 2 Peter 3:8: “With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day.” God doesn’t operate on the same timetable that we do. He can do in a moment what we would expect to take years; He also can allow us to feel that time has stopped and we fear that His answers may never come.
In verse 6 of today’s passage, Peter urges us to humble ourselves before God, with the promise that God will lift us up “in due time.” Merriam-Webster states that “in due time” means “eventually, at an appropriate time” (emphasis mine). Dictionary.com says the phrase is often used ”to suggest that someone should be patient.” In the Bible, “in due time” refers to God’s time, not ours. When we humble ourselves under God’s mighty hand, He will be faithful to His promise to lift us up (or “exalt” us in ESV). But it will be in His time, when He has done the work He wants to do in us so that we’re ready to receive His blessing.
And verse 10 promises us that, in times of suffering, God will restore and strengthen us after we have suffered “a little while.” Uh-oh! Is this “little while” our measure of time or God’s? When I am in the midst of a difficult situation, at first this is the last thing I want to hear. I know enough to know that how I define “a little while” is vastly different than how God defines it. In light of eternity, a year is less than the blink of an eye.
But there is great comfort to hear that whatever we suffer is finite, and when it is complete, God HIMSELF will restore us and make us strong, firm and steadfast! Whether we deal with anxiety (verse 7), attacks of the enemy/the devil (verse 8), or any other suffering, we’re encouraged to keep coming to God, turning those cares over to Him because HE CARES FOR US.
What a joy it is to know that God is watching over us, caring for us, working in our behalf, planning good things as we humble ourselves before Him and trust that in ALL things He works for the good of those who love Him. (Romans 8:28)
PRAYER
Heavenly Father, help us to grow in patience as we rest in your care and in your timing, trusting your love completely. In Jesus’ Name, Amen!
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