The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish but that all should reach repentance.
– 2 Peter 3:9
I would encourage you to memorize this verse. Especially the second part of it. That God is not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance.
2 Peter 3:9 teaches us about God’s desire for all to come to repentance.
This verse is a picture of God’s love for everyone in the world. Every single individual among the billions of people in the world today. The Lord is not wishing that any of them would perish. The Lord God wants all of them to reach repentance. God loves the world and every single person in it so much that he gave His son that whoever believes in him will never perish, but have eternal life. This is what John 3:16, 2 Peter 3:9, the whole Bible clearly teaches.
God loves the world and every single person in it, and he wants them all, all of them, every single person you see today. And for anybody listening right now who doesn’t know Jesus, who is not repented, turn from your sin and trust in Jesus. God desires for you to be saved from your sin. God desires for you to experience eternal life. And then yes, for every single person you see around you today, God loves them.
2 Peter 3:9 teaches us the depth of God’s mercy for mankind.
God doesn’t want any of them to perish for eternity, He wants all of them to have eternal life. And just think about how that changes the way we live today. That leads us, doesn’t it to love every single person around us today. At school, at work and our neighborhoods, just in the communities where we live, people we interact with today. And it changes the way we view people all around the world.
It’s why we pray for unreached people groups, because God loves them all. God desires them all to reach repentance. And our lives are intended to be a reflection of this desire in God. We are called to live every day desiring the people we see, not to perish but to reach repentance, which leads us to share the gospel with people around us. Just think about it. There are people around us right now who if they were to die, would perish for eternity. And God doesn’t want that.
The question is do we want that? Surely not. We don’t want people around us to perish for eternity. And God has put us in people’s lives to share his love for them, to share his desire for them. So we pray, God, give us your desire, your love. It would lead us today to share the gospel with people around us, to lead people around us, to turn from their sin and trust in you.
Prayer for the Dhimal People
Jesus, we praise you for your love, for all people including us. God, thank you so much for making a way for us to reach repentance, for making a way for us to not perish, but have eternal life. So God, help us to be generous with this. Help us to spread this good news to people around us, to be a reflection of your love for all people around us. And all people around the world, God we pray for the Dhimal people of Nepal, this Hindu people group. No known followers of Jesus among them.
God, we pray for the Dhimal to reach repentance. We pray that the Dhimal would not perish, but would have eternal life. That you would send Christians to the Dhimal of Nepal to share the gospel with them and lead them to repentance, to experience your love for them. God, help us to live, pray, give of our resources, do all that you call us to do in order that the people around us and people around the world would not perish, but would reach repentance. God, we pray this in light of your Word, in light of your love in 2 Peter 3:9. In Jesus name, Amen.
David Platt serves as a pastor in metro Washington, D.C. He is the founder of Radical.
David received his Ph.D. from New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary and is the author of Don’t Hold Back, Radical, Follow Me, Counter Culture, Something Needs to Change, Before You Vote, as well as the multiple volumes of the Christ-Centered Exposition Commentary series.
Along with his wife and children, he lives in the Washington, D.C. metro area.
