May the peace of the Lord Jesus Christ bless you this day and may your troubles be few. I just filled my insulated bottle with Door County Jamaican Blue Mountain Blend Coffee and soon I will be on the road to start my work day.
As we continue our venture toward Easter Sunday I want to take a look into another happening prior to the crucifixion of Jesus.
Jesus Predicts Peter’s Denial Luke 22:31-34
31 And the Lord said,[c] “Simon, Simon! Indeed, Satan has asked for you, that he may sift you as wheat. 32 But I have prayed for you, that your faith should not fail; and when you have returned to Me, strengthen your brethren.”33 But he said to Him, “Lord, I am ready to go with You, both to prison and to death.”
34 Then He said, “I tell you, Peter, the rooster shall not crow this day before you will deny three times that you know Me.”
We see Jesus turn to Simon Peter and He called to him. He called to him "Simon, Simon," which signifies importance by calling out the name twice. Jesus is saying to Peter, pay attention, this is important. I see within this passage a statement that has chilled me to the bone many times. We hear that Jesus has talked with Satan and that Lucifer has asked to shake up Peter's world just to see what he is made of and how he will stand up under the stress of fear, anguish and lack of faith. So from the statement we can derive that Jesus allows this to happen and that He knew Peter's faith would be shaken but not fail completely. We also see that Jesus has prayed for Peter to be able to endure the sifting. He knew that Peter would eventually return to his full faith. He told Peter in this passage that he would be used to strengthen the rest. They would look to him for leadership.
Peter boldly stated that he was ready to die with Jesus, yet Jesus told him that he was not strong enough yet and that Peter would deny even knowing Jesus three times. But Jesus was still going to use Peter in a mighty way. Friends, at times God will allow us to be sifted just to have impurities within us removed. God allows the sifting to take us to a new level of obedience and service to Him. What we see as failure or inabilities, God sees as opportunity to grow. Jesus confronted Peter's arrogant exuberance with the truth. But years later it would be this same Peter who would die a martyr's death after leading the New Testament Church. Peter was stubborn at times but was still teachable. He learned from his mistakes.
As Jesus was headed to the cross He was still concerned about the Spiritual growth of Peter. Are you concerned with your own Spiritual growth? How about the growth of others?
Happy Wednesday!
Marty
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