He Is Patient With You
2 Corinthians 12:9 · 2 Peter 3:9 (NIV)
On Saturday, four volunteers emerged from NASA’s second CHAPEA Mars simulation in Houston after 378 days of isolation. The crew included commander Ross Elder, medical officer Ellen Ellis, science officer Matthew Montgomery, and flight engineer James Spicer.
NASA reports that they entered a 1,700-square-foot, 3D-printed habitat at Johnson Space Center on October 19, 2025. They conducted simulated spacewalks and worked through communication delays. A planned two-week blackout added another challenge. Their work will inform future long-duration missions.
Johnson Space Center director Vanessa Wyche greeted them at the exit. She said communication delays “require patience, careful planning and greater independence,” Reuters reported.
Patience is the word for today.
Moses knew long waiting. Psalm 90 is the only psalm with his name on it. He led a people from camp to camp for forty years. He opens with this: "Lord, you have been our dwelling place throughout all generations" (Psalm 90:1). Then he steps back to see time the way GOD sees it. "A thousand years in your sight are like a day that has just gone by, or like a watch in the night" (Psalm 90:4).
Moses still asks the question every waiting person asks. "Relent, LORD! How long will it be?" (Psalm 90:13). Then he asks for something simple. "Satisfy us in the morning with your unfailing love, that we may sing for joy and be glad all our days" (Psalm 90:14). He closes with a request any builder would understand: "yes, establish the work of our hands" (Psalm 90:17). Moses never set foot in the land he walked toward for forty years. Even so, his prayer ends with gladness and with work placed in the hands of GOD.
Peter picks up Moses' line centuries later. "But do not forget this one thing, dear friends: With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day" (2 Peter 3:8). Peter is speaking about the promised return of the Lord. He explains that wait. "The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. Instead he is patient with you" (2 Peter 3:9). Peter connects that patience to GOD’s desire for people to come to repentance. This promise concerns HIS saving purpose. It gives us reason to trust HIS character while our own questions remain unanswered.
A bishop named Irenaeus led the church in Lyon, in what is now France, around AD 180. In his book Against Heresies, Book IV, chapter 11, he wrote about the prophets who lived long before Jesus came. They longed for HIM. Irenaeus asked, "In what way, then, did they desire both to hear and to see, unless they had foreknowledge of His future advent?" He said they "rejoiced to a certain extent, inasmuch as they hoped for His coming." Their waiting was full of hope. Irenaeus also wrote a short line about who does the real work: "God indeed makes, but man is made."
Jesus invites us to bring our requests to the Father. HE said, "Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you" (Matthew 7:7). The next verse begins, "For everyone who asks receives" (Matthew 7:8). We can pray honestly without earning an audience. The Father receives us through HIS Son. HIS care does not depend on finding polished words.
Paul asked again too. He faced a hardship he never named. "Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me" (2 Corinthians 12:8). The answer came in a different shape than the one he asked for. "But he said to me, 'My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness'" (2 Corinthians 12:9).
Paul received grace while the hardship remained. He did not have to become strong before CHRIST spoke to him. The answer met him in his weakness. We can bring that same weakness into prayer today.
The crew in Houston had a mission calendar. Our waiting often has no date marked for its end. Scripture gives us room to lament that uncertainty. Moses asks how long. Paul pleads for relief. Both bring their need directly to GOD.
We cannot call every painful wait something GOD arranged. We can trust the patience Peter names and the grace CHRIST promised Paul. GOD receives unfinished people. HE continues HIS work in us through days we understand and days we cannot explain. HIS grace is sufficient in the present.
It does leave me thinking about how GOD’s patience changes the way I pray while I wait.
I am not here to prove myself. I am here to make HIM visible.
🙏 To the one who has prayed the same prayer for years, your Father is not tired of hearing it.
🙏 To the one counting days until a door opens, the Lord "is not slow in keeping his promise."
🙏 To the one who feels weak and unfinished, HIS power is made perfect in weakness.
🙏 To the one building something with tired hands, the One who made you is still at work in you.
Grace and Peace.