February 12-18, 2017
The Word for this week is: Long-Suffering
The Thought for this week is: God is long-suffering
God uses two Hebrew words to convey His third quality to Moses: “slow” and “anger”. (Ex. 34: 6.) This quality of God indicates that while God is completely holy in his nature and abhors sin, He is also slow to exercise His anger against His creation when they do sin. When man sins, God experiences a deep feeling of anger, regret, and remorse. He knows the consequences of sin—separation from His presence and eventual death. Every Christian parent knows this similar feeling of “anger”, “regret”, and “suffering” when one of their children is rebellious. Yet most parents keep praying and waiting for any signs of repentance.
One of the best pictures of God waiting patiently for one of his creation to return to him is given in Jesus’ parable of the prodigal son (Luke 15). Correspondingly, in this parable there is also “abundant joy” in God’s heart when a repentant son returns. Let us memorize the following Scripture this week given by the Apostle Peter: “The Lord is not slow about His promise, as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance.” (II Peter 3: 9)
By Ron Bever