Dear Faith Family,
Each day we awake into the merciful and powerfully persistent patience of our Father. That's what Peter says as he looks over God's action in history and still today.
The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, on your account, not wishing that any should perish but that all should reach repentance.
(2 Peter 3:9)
Every morning we find ourselves awaken by the alarm or kids or dog is a day in which God is acting on behalf of all that is his, against all that is evil, so that all might flourish as he desires.
Peter's reminder sounds a lot like an often quoted Old Testament verse,
The steadfast love of the LORD never ceases.
Because of the steadfast love of the LORD, we are not cut off;
his mercies never come to an end;
they are new every morning...
Ironically enough, this familiar, hope-giving refrain comes not at the height of Israel's prestige nor from the lips of a king in his palace, but from the heart of a rejected prophet at the point where everything seems lost.
Jeremiah's words appear in Lamentations chapter 3:22-23 and are preceded by his confession that his soul cannot relinquish the bitter pain of his current afflictions and wanderings (3:19-20). It is here, in the despair of unmet expectations, unfilled longings of faith, that Jeremiah does what Peter encourages his faith family to do: remember.
But this I call to mind, and therefore I have hope...
(Lamentations 3:21)
Wherever your soul finds itself today, whether in a place like Jeremiah or someplace more preferred...remember. Remember that the air you breathe today is God's powerfully persistent and sufficient mercies. And join with God's beloved throughout history and the world in letting your soul say, "The LORD is my portion; therefore I will hope in him." (3:24).
Love you, faith family! God bless.