April 25, 2023: 2 Peter 3:8: Beloved, Do Not Forget this One Thing

“But beloved, do not forget this one thing, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.’ - 2 Peter 3:8

Eternity and time. Humans cannot fully understand eternity but we understand time. There is no concept of time in eternity, for it is without measure. When there is no beginning and there is no end, there is nothing that is measured in between; it just is and always has been. That is God’s reality. His reality is so much different than ours.

From the moment we are conceived in our mother’s womb, our time clock begins, seeming slow at first, but speeding up with great intensity as we near our own finish line. We measure everything in time: our parents count down the months until we are born, and once we are born, how long will it take until we can crawl, talk, and walk. As we grow and start school, we count the days before school is let out and we can enjoy the summer as a child, how many years until we can start dating, how many days or months until the wedding date comes, how many hours until we get off of work, how many years until we retire; everything in our lives is measured by our brief time here on this earth. We have such a brief stay here, and sadly, some have very short lifespans, that we try to do all that we can before we die. People tell us, “We only live once, make this your best life now.” However, that is a fallacy and a deception of Satan. Our lives here on earth are a temporary stay on our way to our true lives when we are in eternity. Where we will spend our eternity is completely our decision.

There are many today who are doubting the return of Jesus Christ because it has been almost two thousand years since He died, resurrected, and ascended to heaven. There were many in the days of the apostles of Christ who looked for His return in their own time, and many have looked since then, and many in our generation today are early awaiting His return. But we have to remember that His return is on His time, God’s time, and not our own. He is not constrained by a finite number of days of living, as we are. Just because He has not returned does not mean He will not return; He will. The Bible promises it, and it will be done. If we just look at the span of time that was before the promises of His first coming and when He actually did come, it was a long time. We don’t know exactly when the book of Genesis was written and which timeframe it covers, but it was a very long time prior to the first coming of Christ. It was in the book of Genesis that the first prophecy of Jesus was made in Genesis 3:15, “And I will put enmity between you [Satan] and the woman, and between your seed and her Seed; He shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise His heel.’ And exactly as prophesied in the Bible, Jesus was born and Satan caused Him to be crucified, including having a nail driven through His heel. But that is not the end. As Jesus Himself told His disciples, He will come again, He will defeat Satan and all who follow him, and Jesus will take His rightful, righteous reign upon the earth for 1,000 years, followed by the destruction of the earth and the creation of a new heavens and a new earth, in which only those who have put their faith and trust in Jesus Christ as their Savior will live, without sorrow, death, and pain, for sin will be no more. But those who have not put their faith and trust in Jesus will spend their eternity where there is only sin, only sorrow, pain, deep anguish, tears, and eternal death from which they cannot escape.

Why should we trust in the promises of God that He made through His word, the Holy Bible? Because everything that He has promised either has already happened or will come true at some point, in His perfect timing, not in ours. All we need to do is to look at all of the prophecies that have already been fulfilled and we can know and be confident that His word is sure, His word is true, and what it says will happen, will happen, at just the right time. ✝️