Day 40: Where Has Patience Gone?
Read: Genesis 5:25-29
Patience is not a common virtue found today. It is certainly not easy to come by when a world of information is held at our fingertips. Communication takes the click of a few buttons, and food can be delivered to your door.
Take Amazon prime, for example. Why should you wait 2-3 weeks for a product to come in the mail if you can get it in 2 days? And if this isn’t fast and convenient enough, you can even ask for 2-hour delivery or get it delivered to your car. While I’m a big supporter of 2-day shipping, I recognize that it is a reflection of our ever-increasing lack of patience.
Even though it is not common to find patience in society’s rhythms today, God shows us that He is steadfastly a God of patience. In Genesis 5, there is a man named Methuselah. He was actually Enoch’s son. His name means, “when he dies it shall be sent.” God used this as a warning to mankind that they should repent before the Flood. Methuselah then died the year of the flood.
His life was the longest ever lived, ending at 969 years. I don’t think this was an accident. God waited the entirety of Methuselah’s life for His image-bearing creation to repent and turn back to Him before the Flood. He did not wait a short life-span, but 969 years. And yet, even after all that waiting, only Noah’s family was following God, and that’s why only they found favor in Him.
God is just and He brings justice on sin, but He is truly a patient God as well. 2 Peter 3:9 says, “The Lord is not slow to fulfill His promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance.” God does not desire for people to receive His wrath, it is just a result when people do not listen.
He desires for all people to experience His salvation. Just as God waited the length of Methuselah’s life for humanity to repent before the flood, He allows time for people today to come and know Him before the final judgement day. The period of the Bible’s big picture that we are in right now is one of God patiently waiting for as many people as possible to experience His love and forgiveness.
If you know someone who has not put their trust in Jesus, today is the day to reach out to them. This waiting period will not last forever, but it is not too late. I urge you to be intentional in this present season of waiting. Ask God that He will give you an opportunity today to show someone a more true picture of who He is.