“For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit: By which also he went and preached unto the spirits in prison;

“Which sometime were disobedient, when once the longsuffering of God waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was a preparing, wherein few, that is, eight souls were saved by water” (1 Peter 3:18-20).

God operates in longsuffering as He did in Noah’s day. He sent Noah to preach that it would rain. I don’t see evidence of it in Scripture, but tradition says that Noah preached 100 years. One thing we do know, he preached a long time. He was laughed at and scorned, because rain was something they had never seen before.

Dew came up from the bottom of the earth, although the clouds were full of water. But, just because you have not seen something, doesn’t mean it isn’t possible. With God all things are possible. It’s possible negatively and positively. You might think, you’ve got it made. You might think there is no way it could happen to you.

Or you might be on the other side and say, “I’m too old. It’s been too long. There is no way that I can get to where I need to get.” But with God, your history or age has nothing to do with it. There are no limitations with God, except the ones you put on yourself.

They didn’t listen. So, only Noah and his family were saved. That was not God’s will. God’s will is that none perish, and that everybody comes to repentance. That is God’s will for you. It is God’s will that no one be sick, broke, family busted, sad and discouraged. That has never been God’s will.

God’s will is that you are blessed in everything you do. But, whether or not you walk in that, depends on you. As believers, God is expecting us to be a pattern of longsuffering. We are to be like our Father and suffer long, even when it doesn’t seem fair.

God’s longsuffering changed from Jesus being the only begotten Son of God, to being now the first-born of many brothers. God now has a huge family, both on the earth and in heaven. But He wants some more, so He is going to wait longer so that He can sweep everybody in. But He is expecting us to operate the same way.

Scripture References: Matthew 19:26; Mark 10:27