If you only read one thing, read this: For all of
eternity God’s patience will NEVER
run out because it has NO limits!
Now, please don’t misunderstand what I am saying. I
promise I am not going Rob Bell on you by forsaking truth. However, throughout
the generations of Church history, many faithful Bible-believing men and women
have viewed God’s patience from an incorrect perspective. By simply typing “Does
God’s patience have a limit?” into Google, you will find countless pages
containing various articles written expounding on this incorrect perspective.
What do you think regarding God’s patience?
I was taught to believe that God is infinitely
patient in character yet, practically speaking, there will come a time when His
patience will run out for mankind. This terminology has been used in the field
of evangelism for years. The word “infinite” is defined as limitless. How can we as the Church honestly claim that God is
infinite while, at the same time, attributing limitations upon Him? If God is
infinitely patient, then how is it possible for His patience to reach a limit? This
seems contradictory.
The key truth to remember is that God’s patience
never runs out. It is an eternal spring as He is the River of Life. It is not
that God’s patience runs out on the sinner. The problem is not with God, but with us. (As is everything else – see my blogs for details.)
God built into each one of us a timer. Whether you
are baking cookies or heating something up in the microwave, a timer’s purpose
is to run out so that you will know not how
to act, but when. There is coming a
day when you will find yourself at death’s door. Whether immediate or slow,
your life will come to an end. It is an absolute.
God is infinitely patient because He does not have a
built-in timer as we do. No attribute of His will ever lessen or come to a
close. We, on the other hand, are but a vapor in the wind. We are here one day
and gone the next. We have a start and we have a finish (physically speaking).
I sat in a drive-thru at Steak ‘n Shake one time and
waited fourteen minutes and there were still three cars ahead of me. I was fine
waiting, but I had a commitment I needed to keep and ended up driving off
before I received my order. Not because I was impatient, but there came a point
when I needed to get moving so that I could meet the deadline. This is not
impatience on my part. It is simply having an objective. The impatience comes
when I lose track of my attitude and allow my sin nature to take control.
God works this way with man. He is involved in all
human affairs and He has foreordained specific times and events to come about. The
people of Noah’s day lived almost ten times as long as we do in today’s organically-grown,
medically-achieved nutritiously-protein-packed era. Does that mean He was more patient with Noah’s people than us
today? Not at all!
God gave the people of Noah’s day 120 years to
repent yet they did not. God’s patience was not what ran out; the clock ran
out. The people did not meet their deadline. No pun intended.
Final Statement: God’s patience NEVER runs out. We run out.
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