Be thankful, for longsuffering

Longsuffering
Greek: makrothumeo
- to be patient, to bear with; lit., to be long-tempered


I listened to a podcast by John Piper today - "The God of Peace Will Soon Crush Satan Under Your Feet", from November 12, 2006. The text is Romans 16:17-20.

The reference from 2 Peter at the very end of his sermon is what really blessed me this morning, because I had a wonderful conversation yesterday with someone I've missed. We talked about something that has really been on my mind lately - and it's just funny how many times it has come up with several different people since it first entered my mind. It's like God is just tapping me on the shoulder every time it comes up, reminding me to be thankful for illumination/realization from Him.

It's that danger I've been thinking about - about walking through life with a false sense of security from the age of 7, thinking I was saved and still living however I wanted to. Feeling no change of heart; still not having a love for the things of God; "believing" but not having faith. I'll never be perfect, I'll always be sinful, and I'll never measure up to anything close to what Christ is; but the desire to try, and the humility that the difficulty of it brings is the evidence of true salvation.

It was something I was very ashamed of admitting to anyone - family or anyone in church. However, during the semester of Faith/visitation this year, someone else finally admitted out loud what I had been coming to realize since that first time I went back to church after moving home. Since then, I have been a part of two more conversations where someone else admitted the very same thing - they were "saved" as a young child, but only later on in life did they really come to know and love Jesus Christ as their savior.

It scares me how I drifted along thinking I was close to God and didn't realize how far away I was because of bad theology - or an assumption of what eternal security really means. I told Eddie yesterday, I'm lucky nothing happened in between age 7 and 26 - and he said himself he is thankful he was spared from that wreck he had a few years ago, when a telephone pole was the only thing keeping his car from going over the edge of a hill.

That's why the reference to 2 Peter in John Piper's message meant so much to me this morning.


3:3 Knowing this first, that there shall come in the last days scoffers, walking after their own lusts,
3:4 And saying, Where is the promise of his coming? for since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation.


3:8 But, beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing, that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.
3:9 The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.

As soon as I read that last line, I had to read it over again.

Longsuffering
not willing that any should perish
but that all would come to repentance

Thank you Lord for being patient with me from 7 to 26. Thank you for being patient with me from 26 on.

Today, I am thankful for a God who is longsuffering toward us. I am thankful for a patient God, and a God who guides us through experience and taps us on the shoulder with conversations with people that He gives us as blessings.

I am thankful that He, even in His perfection, is patient with our unceasing imperfection.

I am thankful that He has given me the ability to find happiness in Him.

It's funny...

How God reiterates things just to make sure we got the point. I came up with my title to this page some time ago. It was a verse out of a chapter with a story that really hit me hard and true. Today my Uncle Joe taught out of that chapter this morning during Sunday school, and it just got him and it got me. It reminded me how grateful and thankful we should be for the mercy we've been shown, and about how faith and belief can be very different things. The Pharisee in the chapter was a religious believer, but had belief without emotion and gratefulness. The woman was the worst kind of sinner in the eyes of the Pharisee, but her faith and unashamed illustration of her faith and gratefulness allowed Jesus to say, "Thy faith hath saved thee; go in peace."

Then the choir this morning sang the song I posted about on my last post. Thank you Lord for your blessings on me.

Then Pastor Mike taught out of Psalm 100 on being Thankful to God and for God.

It's so easy to feel like you've reached an epiphany one day, and forget where you were on the next. Thank you Lord for sending me constant reminders of the blessings you open my eyes to; we forget all too easily without constant prodding.