2 Peter 3:14 Diligent Patience

2 Peter 3:14 “Therefore, beloved, since you are waiting for these, be diligent to be found by Him without spot or blemish, and at peace.”

I hate waiting and I am fairly certain that you would agree with that sentiment. There is something exceedingly upsetting about finding yourself in a line, queued up for something and there is little or no perceptible movement. Imagine you are at the grocery store and you have your gallon of milk, some eggs, maybe some bread, jam, and peanut butter. Oh, go ahead and throw in that quart of orange juice. Maybe some chips and dip. Okay, you are running low on dish detergent, so you throw that into your cart. Now it is time to check out. You quickly find that none of the lines are short and that the counter you end up waiting for seems to take twice as long as everyone else. Then you notice that the person immediately in front of you in line has their cart filled with everything from paper-towels to bottled water. They have music cd's and children's toys. In fact they look like they are trying to stock an emergency shelter with one trip! How is your temper? I know that mine would start to rise and I would become impatient. You know what? I probably would even start complaining to myself about the rudeness of 'some people' who don't have the common courtesy to manage their shopping trips better.

I hear people say “patience is a virtue” all the time. Most of the time it seems that they are trying to encourage themselves as much as someone else, especially when we have to wait for something we are looking forward to. So what are we looking forward to? Well, verse 13 tells us that we are “waiting for a new heaven and a new earth in which righteousness dwells.” That is quite the goal! But lets take a look at our original verse again, “since you are waiting” tells us that we are going to have to wait to get there, and then as long as we are waiting, we are given advice on how to spend our time so that we can “be diligent.” We must work at being found without spot or blemish and at peace. We must work and make the effort to rid ourselves of everything that we would be ashamed of while standing before our precious Lord. We must also be at peace – peace with our surroundings, our trials, our problems, our friends, and our selves. We must be content in all circumstances and learn to let the peace of God pool in our lives, spilling over and out into everyone we meet.

For us to be able to live in a place where righteousness dwells, we must pursue personal righteousness. We must be actively involved in conforming ourselves to the standards which Christ set for us. We cannot let the actions of others affect our composure and contentment. We cannot let others define our world and actions for us because someone already has – someone named Jesus, and He calls to us to become spotless and blameless, without blemish and pure. The only way we can achieve this is for us to draw near to Him. We must seek Christ and seek to know Him better.

We have to wait anyways, so why not diligently pursue a deeper relationship with our Lord, our Saviour, and our best friend. Lets make this a priority in our lives and within six months we shall be amazed at the fruitfulness we see around us!

Be now imitators of your Lord;
You’re His children through His love outpoured.
Let love show now in all you do,
As Christ loved and gave Himself for you,
As a sacrifice to God.