A New Start Resolutions in the Power of God

Mark 14: 71-72 (NLT) Peter swore, "A curse on me if I'm lying--I don't know this man you're talking about!" And immediately the rooster crowed the second time. Suddenly, Jesus' words flashed through Peter's mind: "Before the rooster crows twice, you will deny three times that you even know me." And he broke down and wept.

T.S Eliot once said, "For last year's words belong to last year's language and next year's words await another voice." Profound thoughts for us to consider as 2010 draws to a close and the year 2011 beckons to us. The transition of years is the same as any other day of the year. It has 24 hours, divided equally with 60 minutes to each hour. Nothing extraordinary occurs between the 11:59 PM and 12:00 AM change of the clock on December 31^st. Yet we assign so much significance to the New Year. We assign so much hope to the New Year. It represents to us a new start. A chance to wipe the slate clean and try again. An opportunity to finally get it right.

If you look at the typical top ten New Year resolutions, you will see a graveyard of regret. In the top five alone are quitting smoking, drinking and the inevitable losing weight. In the top ten are such regrets as spending more time with loved ones and "helping others." It is unfortunate that we wait until this magic date to try and reflect upon how we can improve our lives but perhaps what is more frustrating is how quickly the resolutions fade into the deep winter each year.

But take heart! There is good news today! We do not have to wait until the failed magic of New Years comes around every 365 days to get a new start. That new start is available to us every day of the year through Jesus Christ. He offers the opportunity to wipe our slate clean and start over whenever we want to seriously look at changing our lives. Because if we were serious with ourselves we would admit that resolutions do not work because they are rooted in our inability to follow through. We change with the shifting winds where as God, always remains stable:

"I am the L ord , and I do not change. That is why you descendants of Jacob are not already destroyed. Malachi 3: 6 (NLT)

When we resolve to go to God with our need to change our lives we are trusting His sovereign abilities and unchanging nature. If we were to be honest with ourselves we would admit there are many times we need to be transformed by God. Many times we needed that new start. Realize we are not talking about a second chance which we probably used up many years ago! Our God is a God of another chance. The Apostle Peter represents the life that is changed ever so slowly, but once realized can be so powerful.

Peter was drawn by Jesus personally on the Sea of Galilee. Peter was not always wrong nor was he usually right during the time he walked with Jesus. One of the complaints we can make is found in his consistent inconsistency. Here was his calling:

Jesus called out to them, "Come, follow me, and I will show you how to fish for people!" And they left their nets at once and followed him. Mark 1: 17-18 (NLT)

At once, Peter left everything he had and everything he had known to follow Jesus. Too often we can waver about making such a commitment to God. Too often we can try to pretend that we need to be perfect before we can come to the perfector of our faith. No such pretense with Peter. God called him and he answered.

But as his walk with Jesus develops before us in the Gospels, we can see the flaws in the armor. When he sees Jesus walking on the water he correctly asks the Lord to bid him to come out to Him. He recognizes that anything is possible with God! He recognizes the ultimate sovereignty of Jesus over all natural circumstances. Yet contributing to the legacy of an unstable character, he begins to sink as soon as he took his eyes off of Jesus and onto the wind and the waves. Here was the response of Jesus:

Jesus immediately reached out and grabbed him. "You have so little faith," Jesus said. "Why did you doubt me?" Matthew 14: 31 (NLT)

Yet still Jesus would always give him another chance. A new start. Time and again we would see the inconsistency in the character of Peter. Maybe we relate to Peter on some level today. Walking with God, learning from Him, yet still having so much of our own agenda involved. The 16^th chapter of the Gospel of Matthew highlights these inconsistencies. First, Jesus asks the Apostles who they think He is and Peter correctly observes that He is the Christ. Here was the response of Jesus:

Jesus replied, "Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by flesh and blood, but by my Father in heaven. And I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven." Then he ordered his disciples not to tell anyone that he was the Messiah. Matthew 16: 17-20 (NIV)

This had to have been the pinnacle in Peter's life up to this point. He must have been feeling as if he had arrived. As if to highlight his inconsistencies, Matthew then tells another story about how Jesus finally tells the disciples that He must be crucified. Peter, having just done so much right; actually rebukes Jesus:

Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. "Never, Lord!" he said. "This shall never happen to you!" Jesus turned and said to Peter, "Get behind me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to me; you do not have in mind the concerns of God, but merely human concerns." Matthew 16: 22-23 (NIV)

Isn't that often at the center of our problems too? When we can't seem to stop a bad habit such as smoking or drinking isn't it that we are placing our human concerns or desires ahead of God's? The things which we seek to "resolve" each New Year are probably directly correlated to the things we have the most difficult time placing God ahead of. Like Peter before us, we are marked with such drastic inconsistencies, yet God is always there to provide a new start for us. And Peter would soon need a big one.

Peter, in a show of pride and bravado, claims to Jesus that he will never fall away from Him. Jesus plainly tells him that he will actually deny knowing Him before the rooster crows two times. Our key verse captures the end result of this prediction by Jesus. Peter, harassed by onlookers to the arrest of Jesus not only denies knowing Jesus but calls down curses upon himself in order to do so. It is perhaps the saddest or lowest point in Peter's life. It is a feeling I am sure a lot of us can relate to. We had already been called by God. We have already answered. We are saved by His blood and are in covenant relationship with Him as was Peter the night of his denials. Yet when push comes to shove, we can fall away also. We can take our eyes off of Jesus and sink in our surroundings. We can tell God He is wrong; like Peter tried to do when he rebuked Him. We can deny Him and His power in our lives perhaps even at the cost of cursing ourselves. When you look at your New Year's resolutions realize that they are all things God can easily accomplish in us if we would simply not deny Him or His power. If we realize that by denying Him we are actually cursing ourselves to continued misery in not meeting success in the resolution. The issue is not making a resolution but in whom you make it. Under whose power are you trying to resolve changing something?

Peter was in desperate need of a new start after our key verses. In golf, they call redoing a failed shot a "mulligan." Peter needed a mulligan badly. He wanted a "do-over." And while I am sure it seemed impossible at the time, Peter would get that new start. He served a God of "do-overs." So do we today. But imagine the pain and helplessness Peter must have felt from the moment that rooster crowed confirming his betrayal and denial. He then had to watch them crucify Jesus, which he was also wrong about! Not only the profound disappointment of being wrong so often, having not seen Israel delivered from the hand of Roman oppression but also to have to live with the fact that in the end, he failed his God miserably. Peter must have been as down and out as one can be. No matter where this devotional finds you today, God knows exactly where you are. He knew where Peter was and would begin the process of restoring him. That process is there for us as well. The new start we are seeking is always available to us beloved.

First, immediately upon the resurrection we see that Jesus has not forgotten Peter:

But he said to them, "Do not be alarmed. You seek Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified. He is risen! He is not here. See the place where they laid Him. But go, tell His disciples--and Peter--that He is going before you into Galilee; there you will see Him, as He said to you." Mark 16: 6-7 (NKJV)

The angels at the gravesite of Jesus instruct the women to go and tell the disciples AND Peter that Jesus has risen! Why would the angel single out Peter? He was a disciple; wasn't he? You see even when we are not sure where we are, God always knows! He knew Peter was probably feeling as far away from being a disciple as he could have. He knew how traumatic the denials were for him. He wanted to make extra sure that the message got through to him especially. Tell the disciples but don't forget to tell Peter! No matter how far gone you may think you are, God still knows where you are and is calling you by name, as He did with Peter. No matter how down you might be feeling, how backslidden you think your walk has become, or how far away from God you might feel He is still calling you by name today!

Not only does He know exactly where you are and is calling you by name He also is willing to restore you today. When Jesus first appears to Peter after His resurrection, here is where he found him:

Simon Peter said, "I'm going fishing." "We'll come, too," they all said. So they went out in the boat, but they caught nothing all night. John 21: 3 (NLT)

Peter seems to be exactly where Jesus had found him initially. Fishing, and rather unsuccessfully. Maybe this verse shows that Peter had returned to his old life. Maybe it reflects a backslidden state. Peter was out there fishing, desperately needing a do-over and Jesus comes along to provide the new start for him. After eating breakfast with him, Jesus asks him three times if he loves Him. Three times to reconcile the three denials Peter had made. Three times to restore Peter and the calling on his life. Three times to turn the ordinary fisherman, into the extraordinary fisher of men. Like the clock hitting 12:00 AM on January 1^st, Peter has a new slate. His old one has been wiped clean by the Master. His inconsistency erased by the God of another chance. Soon after, Peter would find himself before the men of Jerusalem:

"Therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly that God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Christ." Acts 2: 36 (NLT)

Strong words from the man who denied Christ three times. On that night he would not admit to a servant girl even knowing who Jesus was but now he was giving the first sermon of the church age. He was rebuking those who had crucified Christ. He spoke with the boldness of the Holy Spirit and the assuredness that came from knowing he had been given a new start. Peter would go on to begin the church and proclaim the Good News everywhere he went. When he was to be put to death by crucifixion, he requested that it be done upside down as he felt he was not worthy to die in the manner of his Lord and Savior.

As we close out 2010 and enter into the New Year, let us recognize that we need not resolve to do anything except let God be in charge of what we want changed. Let us also realize that we do fail as humans. We fail all the time. We can see our faith falter during the storms of our lives. We can blame God instead of looking within. We can deny the power we know we have in Jesus. We can even be at rock bottom, staring at the clock, waiting for it to flick over to 12:00 AM, so that we can try again for a new start. Like T.S. Eliot reminds us though; that new start awaits a new voice from us. We cannot speak with last year's failures on our lips. We must trust that He is God and we can have another chance at things if we truly want it. If we truly believe it.

Happy New Year on January 1^st.

Happy New Start whenever you want to go to God for it.

Reverend Anthony Wade December 29, 2010