Imitate the Patience of Jehovah – ??⏰⚖️⏰??​​​​​​​

[Bible Speaks]

Imitate the Patience of Jehovah

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Man’s situation does not compare with that of the Creator, who does not reside within our solar system and who is not affected by its various cycles and orbits. Of God, who is from time indefinite to time indefinite, the psalmist says: 

“For a thousand years are in your eyes but as yesterday when it is past, and as a watch during the night.” (Ps 90:2, 4) Correspondingly, the apostle Peter writes that “one day is with Jehovah as a thousand years and a thousand years as one day.” (2Pe 3:8) 

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For man, a 1,000-year period represents some 365,242 individual time units of day and night, but to the Creator it can be just one unbroken time period in which he begins the carrying out of some purposeful activity and brings it on to its successful conclusion, much as a man begins a task in the morning and concludes it by the dayÂ’s end.

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Jehovah is the Originator of our universe in which time, space, motion, mass, and energy have all been proved to be inescapably interrelated. He controls them all according to his purpose, and in dealing with his creatures on earth he makes definite time appointments for his own actions toward them, right down to the “day and hour.” (Mt 24:36; Ga 4:4) He keeps such appointments with the utmost punctuality.

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https://wol.jw.org/en/wol/d/r1/lp-e/1200001132#h=22:0-22:832

Imitate the Patience of Jehovah

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The first point is that Jehovah does not view time as we do. To the One who lives forever, a thousand years are as one day. He is not restrained or pressured by time, but he is not slow in acting. Possessing limitless wisdom, Jehovah knows precisely the best time to act for the benefit of all concerned, and he patiently waits for that time to come.However, we should not conclude that Jehovah is insensitive to any suffering that his servants may experience in the meantime. He is a God of “tender compassion,” the personification of love. (Luke 1:78; 1 John 4:8) 

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He is able to undo, completely and permanently, any harm that this temporary permission of suffering might have caused.—Psalm 37:10.

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It is, of course, not easy to wait for something that one yearns for. (Proverbs 13:12) Thus, when people do not swiftly fulfill their promises, others may conclude that they do not intend to do so. How unwise it would be to think that of God! If we mistake God’s patience for slowness, the passing of time can easily cause us to give way to doubt and discouragement, and we risk becoming spiritually drowsy. 

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Even worse, we might be misled by those whom Peter earlier warned against—ridiculers, those without faith. Such ones mockingly say: “Where is this promised presence of his? Why, from the day our forefathers fell asleep in death, all things are continuing exactly as from creation’s beginning.”—2 Peter 3:4.

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How is JehovahÂ’s patience related to his desire that people repent?

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A second point that we can draw from PeterÂ’s words is that Jehovah is patient because he desires all to attain to repentance. Those who stubbornly refuse to turn back from their bad ways face execution at the hand of Jehovah. However, God finds no pleasure in the death of the wicked one. Rather, he delights to see people repent, turn back from their bad ways, and keep living. (Ezekiel 33:11) Consequently, he is exercising patience and is having the good news declared in all the earth so that people may have every opportunity to live.

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https://wol.jw.org/en/wol/d/r1/lp-e/2006084