God is sovereign, so you must make every effort (that's not a contradiction!)
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Previous DIG DEEPER posts on 2 Peter
2 Peter 3 Summary
What kind of things do you do to relax at the end of the day? Chances are that most of these activities are designed to limit the amount of thinking you do. After a long day of thinking about one problem or another, sometimes you just need to veg out.
The Bible was written for the opposite reason: not to shift your mind into neutral, but rather to stimulate your mind to wholesome thinking (NIV v1). While vegging out has it's time and place, the real way to rest your weary mind is to be stimulated by God's Word.
It should come as no surprise that the world is full of scoffers who scorn God and His followers. Sometimes we think that if such people only knew the truth they wouldn't act that way or say those things.
But today we're reminded that these people do know the truth. Verse 5 reminds us that they deliberately forget God's sovereign control of all things. Since they've not stimulated their minds to wholesome thinking (v1), they instead follow their own evil desires (v3).
Dig Deeper
IS GOD PATIENT OR SOVEREIGN? Yes.
Sometimes - often times - it seems like one aspect of God cancels out the other. Peter reminds you today that in His patience, God does not want anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance (v9). But in other places in the Bible we read about how God has already chosen those who will repent (Ephesians 1:4-5, Romans 9:15-16).
So if He's already decided, He doesn't seem very patient.
But God is sovereign and patient. John 3:16 is fully true: God loves the whole world - all people - so much that He sent His Son, and He patiently waits for everyone to come to repentance.
Yet all people have deliberately forgotten (v5) God's patience and love, so God has sovereignly chosen to save some.
AAA Prayer :
ACKNOWLEDGE WHO GOD IS: Father in heaven, you are not slow in keeping Your promise (v9)
ALIGN YOUR LIFE WITH GOD'S WILL: Ask God to strengthen you to make every effort to be found spotless, blameless and at peace with Him (v14), and always pray for His Kingdom to come.
ASK GOD FOR WHAT YOU NEED:
