Count the Patience of Our Lord as Salvation

Count the Patience of Our Lord as Salvation.  “I hate wait,” said Inigo, the inimitable character in The Princess Bride (Willian Goldman, 1973). I think it is safe to say that we all “hate wait,” but especially our daughter-in-law who is in her second week past her baby’s projected due date. Today, she gets dibs on hating the waiting, and tomorrow, too, if applicable! What happens when we wait, though, is an indispensable part of our spiritual development. If we never have to wait, then our faith would be flat. Waiting becomes spiritual texture and strength.

Waiting is good and it produces goodness. Waiting is not hateful for God or hate-filled for us. Waiting is part of the Lord’s good recipe for us to be “conformed to the image of his Son” (Rom. 8:29). The whole creation along with us is agonizingly waiting, “groan[ing] inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies” (Rom. 8:23). “We wait for it with patience” (Rom. 8:25). Waiting is part of the wanting.

More than our feelings though, our attitude most affects our waiting. God’s patience does not imply his reluctance to answer our prayers. It is quite the opposite. Wait is an answer to prayer, as solidly as any Yes or No! The waiting forces us to focus on what we think about God and his care for us while we are waiting. It is a very cerebral aspect of spiritual maturity, but essential, nonetheless.

Peter connected a statement about patience and waiting to a command about patience and waiting during a time when his readers were tempted to perceive the Lord’s delay in intervention during their persecution as the Lord’s preoccupation somewhere else. “The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance … [but] count the patience of our Lord as salvation” (2 Pet. 3:9, 15). He doesn’t care, says the doubter. He isn’t able, says the scoffer. He is bringing all to repentance including me, says the waiter.

Counting is both an action of ascribing the what and why of waiting (vs. 9) and an attitude of interpreting the how and where of waiting within God’s sovereign purposes (vs. 15). But mostly, waiting submits the when of waiting under the who of God. Who is God during our waiting? He is patient. He is good. He is present. He is strong. He is unchanging. If we count God’s patience as his “slowness” to keep his word, then we miss its gift (vs. 9). If we count God’s patience as his “salvation,” then we receive its gift. Transforming our attitude is the work of waiting. Strengthening our trust is the purpose of waiting.

Will we trust God in our in-between spaces with our in-between phases? Will we entrust our waiting to God who is patient? “Therefore, let those who suffer according to God's will entrust their souls to a faithful Creator while doing good” (1Pe 4:19). Our attitude affects our worship.