Looking at this chapter and looking back at what I wrote in the read through, which is the following and which I am going to simply reiterate today:

2 Peter‬ ‭3:8-10‬ ‭ESV

“But do not overlook this one fact, beloved, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day (something I have noticed about myself is that patience over time is amazingly difficult...I mean, delayed gratification is a skill that takes time to develop, and one thing reading the Bible REALLY demonstrates, when we read the whole story, is that God has an amazing ability to wait and let things play out and then intervene at the right time...after we’ve thought that 2, 3, or even thousands of the right times have already passed. Perspective is one of the great gifts of reading God’s Word). The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you (I love that...not ‘slow’, but ‘patient’...allowing things to develop as He plans, over time, in His time), not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance. But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, and then the heavens will pass away with a roar, and the heavenly bodies will be burned up and dissolved, and the earth and the works that are done on it will be exposed.” (Being in the financial planning world, one thing I have noticed is how language can sometimes be completely off-base. Death is one of the common places I see this...people will say that “he died suddenly and unexpectedly”...you know, very seldom is death completely ‘expected’. Even people who’ve been waiting on death for some time end up ‘suddenly’ passing most of the time. Usually there is a goodbye that is missed, a final kiss or a farewell that is lost...death is a thief in that way, striking unexpectedly on all but very seldom occasions. I love the reminder here that God’s next demonstration, God’s coming again, will feel like that. We should live in expectation and in preparation. Frankly, I don’t know anyone who’s lived a faithful life who has regretted it...perhaps I don’t see enough people who’ve reached the end of life to have heard someone express that feeling...but I bet that’s a very uncommon position to take, to say that a faithful life was an unfulfilling life.)

The one thing that I would add goes back to yesterday’s reading, and it is this idea of being curious for truth as we open God’s Word.  Today, we read in 2 Peter 3:1-2 that Peter wants to stir our minds up with reminders of predictions past.  I was doing a little digging, it according to the website reasons.org, there are about 2500 prophecies or predictions in scripture about the future.  What is amazing is that based on their research, 2000 of them have already come true.  Now, we can argue about little predictions and I am guessing some of the coming true events are less convincing than others, but that is still 2000...I mean, 200 would be a lot...but 2000?  Wow.

We can rest easy that though we don’t know what’s going to happen in the future, God does...and God has things under control.

Tomorrow we’ll dive back into Proverbs again for a few days and then we’ll pick our next study.