Plan And Pace

“But do not forget this one thing, dear friends: With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day. The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. Instead he is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.” - 2 Peter 3:8-9
 
 
The story is told of farmer who ridiculed others for believing in God. He wrote a letter to the local newspaper gloating, “I plowed, planted, cultivated and hauled my crops on Sunday; but I never went to church on Sunday. If you look around, you will see that I harvested more bushels per acre than anyone else, even those who are God-fearing and never miss a service.” After printing the man’s letter, the editor of the newspaper retorted, “God doesn’t always settle His accounts in October.”
 
This man assumed that his own actions were the reason for his success; therefore, there was no reason to believe in God. He arrogantly believed that because he found some worldly success, that it would always be like that. Paul drew the same parallels in his time as he spoke about false teachers who believed that just because Jesus had not returned, that he was not going to. However, God’s timetable is not our timetable, and He has a reason and a season for everything and everyone.  
 
God is so loving that He doesn’t want to see anyone perish. He gives us the time and grace to repent and seek His face. And unfortunately, it is often not in the happy times, but the sad and frustrating times that we draw closer to God.  
 
One day, we will all stand before God to give an account of how we utilized our time and resources here on it. God will want to know what we did in His name and how we represented Him. And we don’t know when that day will come. Decide today not to delay. Put your trust in God and remember, God’s delay is not God’s denial. Everything will align in His time.