1. How important is keeping a promise? What is the last promise you remember making? Did you keep that promise?

2. Who is someone that you know that always keeps their promises? (This is not a trick question.)

Today, we are going to look at a promise that God has made and examine whether He is true in keeping that promise. Throughout the Bible, we see that God makes lots of promises.

3. What are some promises you remember God making?

A promise is a fragile thing. You break a promise and those you made it with will be hesitant to believe you next time you make a promise. However, if you continually keep your promises, those around you will begin to trust you more and more. In 2 Peter, Peter is writing against those who argue that God broke His promise of sending Jesus to the Earth for a second time. We call this the day of the Lord.

Read John 14:1-3.

Those listening to Jesus heard these words and assumed that this would happen soon. When years went by without Jesus coming back a second time, they accused God of breaking His promise.

Read 2 Peter 3:3-4.

Now, let us look at Peter’s reasoning as to why God has not broken His promise, and how He is still true to His promise.

Read 2 Peter 3:8-10.

Take a moment and think about infinity. Pause as a group and have each person try to think about a number that never ends or a person that lives forever, with no beginning or end. If you are anything like me, your brain probably begins to hurt. I try and understand infinity, but it feels like my brain is not capable of it. For God, infinity is where He exists. He has no beginning and no end. For Him, time does not function the same. We live in the present. It is not possible for us to live in the past or the future. Yet, for God, He sees all time at the same time.

4. If you had a time machine, what time would you go to? Why?

5. Who is the oldest living person you know? How long have they lived?

My guess is that they are 80 or 90 years old, maybe 100. The average guy lives to be 73.5 and the average female lives to be 79. In the Bible, before the flood, there were some people who lived a couple hundred years. I believe that was due to the way the Earth functioned before the flood – much more like a humid rainforest where conditions were better for growth. However, in the grand scheme of the world, even that is not a very long time. Peter says in verse 8 that to the Lord, one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. God does not function within time the same way humans do.

Read 2 Peter 3:9 again.

Peter’s defense against God breaking His promise has two points. First, it is that God is not slow since time functions differently for God. In a human sense, God might seem slow in sending Jesus a second time, but in God’s measure of time, it has not been very long. Peter’s second point is that God is purposely being patient towards humans so that more people can respond to the Gospel and be saved from their sins. This is a very important aspect of God’s character; He is patient.

6. How has God been patient with you?

7. Are you more of a patient or impatient person? How do you know?

We will see one day that God will keep His promise to send Jesus a second time. Though we do not have proof of His second coming yet, we have many other promises in Scripture that God has kept that prove His character. We see over and over that God is faithful in keeping His promises and He is patient. He is faithful and patient with Abraham, the Israelites (over and over), and in sending a Savior, Jesus Christ, to this Earth, which is promised more than 456 times in the Old Testament.

8. If someone kept their promises to you 456 times, would you trust that person?

9. Do you keep your promises to people? How important is keeping promises if you are a Christian?

10. Do you think that God is trustworthy? Why or why not?