Listen to today’s devo!

With the Lord a day is like a thousand years. . . . The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise. (2 Peter 3:8–9)

After students took an assessment of their personalities, the professor asked them to line up across the back wall of the classroom on a continuum from most Type A to most Type B. He then paired a Type A with a Type B and asked them to go for a walk on campus to discuss how each deals with stressful deadlines. Type As spoke of making more lists, working harder, multitasking, and reprioritizing. Type Bs played games, looked for the fun in the project, took naps, and procrastinated. Everyone met their deadlines but differed in what they did while the deadline approached.

God has set a deadline. No one knows the due date, but we know that it is coming. Peter’s contemporaries were beginning to lose focus. Will it be tomorrow, or a thousand years from now? Peter reminded us that we may lose hope while we wait, but God is trustworthy. He always follows through on his promises.

What do you do while you deal with deadlines? Peter encouraged us to remember what God has already done. Reading Scripture, church history, and missionary biographies can be great reminders of God’s promises fulfilled. Enjoying his creation, engaging in Christian conversation, worshiping him, and journaling our prayers and God’s answers—all of these help personalize his promises to us. As we patiently wait, God is working until his return.

When life gets tough, hold on to God’s promises.

Priscilla Hammond is an ordained pastor and associate professor in the Benson School of Business at Southern Wesleyan University. She served as the compiling editor of This Holy Calling (WPH, 2022).

© 2023 Wesleyan Publishing House. Reprinted from Light from the Word. Used by permission. Scriptures taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV®.