God Is Patient, Not Slow
Month 6: Hard Questions · Memory Verse
Today's Scripture
Read together: 2 Peter 3:8-9
8 Beloved, do not let this one thing escape your notice: With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day. 9 The Lord is not slow in keeping His promise as some understand slowness, but is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish but everyone to come to repentance.
Memory Verse
“The Lord is not slow in keeping His promise as some understand slowness, but is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish but everyone to come to repentance.”— 2 Peter 3:9 (BSB)memorize this week
📖 Bible-in-a-Year (optional)
Today's reading: 2 Samuel 19-21
Reading the whole Bible in a year — do this when you have extra time. (Around Day 166 of 365 — David's kingdom is restored after rebellion.)The Heart of It
Some people in Peter's day were sneering. "Where is Jesus? He said He'd come back, but nothing has changed!" They mistook God's patience for God being asleep. Or they thought God wasn't keeping His word at all. Peter answers with two truths. First, God doesn't count time the way we do. "One day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day." We get impatient after an hour. God sees the whole sweep of history at once. What looks like a long delay to us is right on time to Him.
Second, and this is the heart of our verse, God is waiting on purpose, and the purpose is love. He is "not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance." Every extra day God waits is another day someone can turn to Him and be saved. Jesus died for all people, and God genuinely wants all to be rescued. So He holds the door open as long as possible. That changes how we feel about the "delay." God isn't dragging His feet. He's giving your friends, your neighbors, even people who mock Him, one more chance to come home. God's patience is not weakness. It is mercy with the clock still running.
Around the Table
Jesus is coming back, and He is not slow! He is waiting so more people can say yes to Him.
Let's do it: Count slowly to ten together. Then say, "God is patient and waiting in love!"
When people say "Jesus hasn't come back, so maybe He won't," we can answer: God is being patient so more people get to be saved.
Let's talk: Who is someone you hope God is being patient for, so they can know Jesus?
"Not willing that any should perish" tells us God truly desires everyone to be saved. Christ died for all. God's delay is mercy, not neglect or forgetfulness.
Let's go deeper: How does knowing God wants everyone saved shape the way you treat people who don't yet believe?
💬 Conversation Starter
When have you had to wait a long time for something good? Did you later find out the waiting was actually worth it?
🛡️ Defending the Faith
Sometimes people say, "If God were real, He'd have done something by now." You can answer kindly. He is doing something. He's giving people time to come to Him (). What feels like slowness is actually patience aimed at you. Share it gently, "with gentleness and respect" ().
For Dad · Go Deeper
This verse is a quiet but firm marker of our theological lane. God is "not willing that any should perish." The atonement is genuinely for all, and grace is offered to all, not narrowed to a pre-selected few. Help your children see that God's patience and human freedom go together. He waits because people can really respond. As you memorize this together, let it also examine your own heart. Are there people you've quietly written off, whom God is still patiently pursuing? The Father's patience toward the lost should reshape the way a dad prays for the difficult and the far-off.
Draws on: Robert Menzies, Pentecost; and the Wesleyan-Arminian doctrine of prevenient, resistible grace.
Let's Pray Together
"Father, thank You that You are patient and that You want everyone to be saved. Help us not to give up on people, because You haven't. Use our family while there is still time. In Jesus' name, amen."
God isn't slow. He's patient, holding the door open in love so more people can come home.