"And account that the longsuffering of our Lord is salvation ..." ~ 2 Peter 3:15a
Look closely at that small "red stone" above. Many have told me [Eugenia Price, the author] that they have never really seen it before. This was true with me. I had experienced His salvation for four years before I saw that what I was experiencing was the longsuffering of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Peter, who experienced this longsuffering of Jesus when He was still on this earth, could write this. And so the Holy Spirit directed Peter to remind us that what we too often think of as a patent "process" is, in reality, the Lord Himself being willing to suffer endlessly for us! He suffers for us and over us.
He never runs out of patience. We never get on His nerves. He never stops loving. He always welcomes back. And even when we leave Him for a time, He never leaves us. This is His longsuffering. And it saves us, and keeps us saved. "... the longsuffering of our Lord is salvation."
If we have seen this, we know the Gospel is a love story. Within us begins to stir a longing to obey a God who can love like this. We stop deciding who is "saved" and who is not. We see beyond the "process" to the heart of God that prompts longsuffering of a quality that can save a human race! We are melted by the heart that broke over our sin on a Cross on a dark hilltop and we can only fall down before Him and worship when we first try that heart and find it still breaking --- for love of us. I can only bow my rebellious heart to His and give thanks.
"... God is love ... God is love ..."
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