Reading: 2 Peter 3:8–10
The Day of the Lord is coming. We are not ready. The Day of the Lord will come as a thief. Who among us is ever waiting and watchful? Who among us is truly ready? Repent. That is Peter’s message. His message is a call to repentance.
Look to God’s Law and let yourself see. Wretched men are we when we measure ourselves next to God’s holy and most perfect Law. Repent, lest you too pass away with the heavens and be burned up with the heavenly bodies. Confess your sins. Lay your heart bare before the Lord. He is merciful. A broken and contrite heart—these, He will not despise. He does not wish for any to perish, but that our ways be turned toward Him while there is still time.
For this reason, He is patient. Return to the Lord. He is not slow to fulfill His promise. He is patient. So return to the Lord your God. For He is gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love; and he relents over disaster.
Prayer
Lord Jesus Christ, by Your blood and bitter passion, You have destroyed death forever. Create in us repentant and contrite hearts that, confessing our sins, we may obtain those things for which we ask, namely, forgiveness of sins, life, and salvation; for You live and reign with the Father and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.
Hymn
Oh, how blest it is to know:
Were as scarlet my transgression,
It shall be as white as snow
By Thy blood and bitter passion;
For these words I now believe:
Jesus sinners doth receive. (LSB 609:5)
Thomas Van Hemert (Sem IV, CTSFW)