Are you exasperated?

This week, we’ve been discussing the mental, and emotional strain that is being felt, related to COVID-19. But the virus itself is only one piece of the puzzle.

• There are relational impacts as friends and loved get sick.
• There is the financial impact of lost jobs, and an uncertain future.
• There is the community impact of social distancing, and self-isolation.

The increasing pressure has shifting the conversation to ask, “How long can we live like this? Where’s the balance?”

We found a 3-step process.

We found a 3-step process in 2 Peter 3. As the early church faced a time of great difficulty, Peter called them to be diligent in purity, peace, and patience.

¹⁴ Therefore, beloved, since you are waiting for these, be diligent to be found by him without spot or blemish, and at peace. ¹⁵ And count the patience of our Lord as salvation, just as our beloved brother Paul also wrote to you according to the wisdom given him, ¹⁶ as he does in all his letters when he speaks in them of these matters.

2 Peter 3:14-16a

We already tackled the first two steps of purity and peace. (If you missed those posts, they’re linked below.)

• Step 1: The Diligence of Purity (How Our Mental and Emotional Health Doesn’t Need the Tiger King Right Now)
• Step 2: The Diligence of Peace (How Comment Streams Might Be Adding To Our Mental and Emotional Instability)

Step 3: The Diligence of Patience

In verse 15, Peter calls us to “be found by him…And count the patience of our Lord as salvation…”

The idea is that we are currently waiting for the Lord’s return. But how should we act in this time of waiting? This is something that within this pandemic, many Christians are working through, believing Christ’s return is close at hand; although we will never know for sure when.

In this time of waiting, and uncertainty, we should be diligent. And our third step of diligence is focus in on patience.

To have patience like Christ.

The patience of Christ is focus on the Father’s plan; relinquishing control to Him. That the Gospel story has being written, and is unfolding within the Father’s timeline. Look at Jesus own words.

But concerning that day or that hour, no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father.

Mark 13:32

There is a plan set in motion, and we have no choice but to adhere to it. However, our attitude within that adherence can make all the difference. We must be diligent in our patience, waiting for the revealing of Christ’s return.

Why doesn’t the Father send Jesus now?

During such a crisis, surely Jesus should have come back by now, right? Maybe not, because people are still being saved; which is the motivation for the Father’s waiting.

As these scholars explain,

The waiting is “designed for the salvation of those yet to be gathered into the Church.”

Jamieson, Fausset, and Brown Commentary

Our hearts and minds will find relief.

It’s easy to have a mental, or emotional breakdown when we’re focused on ourselves, and our own circumstances, in this life. However, when our hearts and minds are set on eternity, the next life, everything changes.

Specifically, when we set our thoughts on those who need Jesus, and that COVID-19 might actually be leading them to Him; the breakdown subsides.

You see, to be diligent in patience, like that of Christ, is to embrace a focus on the Gospel plan that has been set into motion. And it should impact our thoughts, and behaviours, becoming an active patience.

Is our patience centred on the salvation of others?

Are we taking every opportunity to share the Gospel? According to Peter, this moves us past simply waiting, but is “hastening the coming of the day of God”. (2 Pt. 3:12)

The true source of diligent patience is waiting for Christ’s return, but in doing so, spreading the Good News of His promise to return. How will you embrace this today? How will you wait? Who will you tell?