Be Like Peter

"In the everyday, in our ups-and-downs, despite our shouted words and broken promises, our gaping failures, He’s still the Savior who died to set us free, and He longs to do it."

PETER SAID JESUS WAS THE CHRIST then moments later gave into the devil and denied Jesus’ statement that He would be killed. Peter took the Passover meal with Jesus and heard His words about the new testament in His blood, then when Jesus was confronted by Roman soldiers in the garden, hours later, he chopped a man’s ear off. Peter denied he knew Jesus three times the night Jesus was arrested but preached a fantastic sermon on Pentecost and 3,000 were saved.

All of us have ups and downs, moments where we get it right and hear God, moments when we’re way off base, Peter sets us an example. From being a lowly Galilean fisherman to becoming a martyr for the church, we can do all things through Christ who strengthens us. The apostle Paul spoke these words to the church at Philippi, himself an example of two extremes. “I know how to be abased and I know how to abound, how to be full and how to be hungry.”

I’d like to say my life has been a straight line, from point A to point B, but the truth is there have been these deep valleys where I’ve had to lean on God and walk by faith. I walk by faith every day, good and bad, but since then, at a level I didn’t before. Only in Christ can I do this life and finish it without condemnation. Peter wept after he heard the rooster crow. He’d denied Jesus for the third time, then lifted his gaze, and looked Him in the eye. I’ve had a moment like that, too, where I seriously misspoke and knew God sorrowed.

But here’s the thing, though He sorrowed over my mistake, He would have sorrowed even more if I had not asked for forgiveness. For that reason He died and rose again. To forgive. When He said He’d remove our sins as far as the east is from the west, He rejoiced to do it. Facing the cross, He looked not at the pain and suffering but at the joy set before Him – having the authority through His blood to forgive and set man free. He rejoiced that He would become King. He rejoiced that He would be restored to His Father’s side. But rejoiced the most that the dominion of darkness would be over for us.

Paul listed his accomplishments, how he’d been a Pharisee with the finest education, trained in righteousness, then he said all of it was dung. He became who he was because of God’s mercy and grace, because Jesus stopped him on the road to Damascus and forgave him. Once more, the Savior of the world chose to spend time with publicans and sinners.

God sees in us what He knows we can be. He sees where we could stand and what words we could speak. He saw Paul as the writer of the New Testament when he persecuted Christians. He saw in Peter, a rock, who would lead the church. And I have heard the testimonies of countless others – Jew and Gentile, Muslim, gang leader, sports star. Men and women with hard edges and dark histories, none of which were too far for Him to save, whose hearts were too broken to heal, whose minds He did not long to set at peace.

In the everyday, in our ups-and-downs, despite our shouted words and broken promises, our gaping failures, He’s still the Savior who died to set us free, and He longs to do it. We know this, yet stung by our faults, we back up from Him when we should press in. We drink in our harsh-spoken words on repeat, and all the while, He’s knocking to be let in. There’s a reason Peter preached that sermon so boldly, a reason Paul stood before the authorities in Rome, a reason for the William Brannons, the Martin Luthers, the Nicky Cruzes, a reason for women like Mary Magdalene and the Samaritan woman.

A reason why when we’re at the height of our best day and the next one wondering what went wrong. Because we can give it all to Jesus and know everything will sift into the sand at His feet, as kneeling there before our accusers, He draws a line and simply says, “Go and sin no more.”

“O righteous Father, the world hath not known thee: but I have known thee, and these have known that thou hast sent me. And I have declared unto them thy name, and will declare it: that the love wherewith thou hast loved me may be in them, and I in them.” (John 17:25-26)

Image by Bianca Van Dijk from Pixabay


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Suzanne D. Williams, Author
www.suzannedwilliams.com
www.feelgoodromance.com