A look at the need to remember what God has said to us...

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April 5, 2012

Suddenly, Jesus' words flashed through Peter's mind: "Before the rooster crows, you will deny three times that you even know me." And he went away, weeping bitterly. -- Matthew 26: 75 (NLT)

I sometimes I feel like I am too hard on poor Peter but he keeps giving me so much material to work with! Continuing on with the march of Jesus to the cross, we come to Thursday. Thursday was Gethsemane and for more on that see today's devotional. For this Thought of the Day however, I am going to look at Peter yet again. I want to discuss remembering the Words of the Lord. Peter here seems to have unworldly-like poor retention! Remember that Jesus specifically warned Peter that he would deny even knowing Him three times before the rooster crowed. It's not like this warning came a month ago or even the previous day. It was the same day! The prediction of the denial and the denial itself come from the same chapter! I would like to think if it was me I would have avoided any possibility of denial or at least not go anywhere near a rooster!

Yet look at the key verse above -- "suddenly Jesus' words flashed through Peter's mind"" Really? Suddenly they flashed through his mind? Just several hours prior he had been specifically warned about denials! Why wasn't that thought prevalent in his mind already so that when the temptation to deny him came up, he could fight it off? Why was Peter's retention so poor? Then God dealt with me and reminded me of all of my failures, despite knowing the Word. All of my immediate failures after just having read about what I was tempted with. And then I realized -- I am Peter. We all are.

What I mean by that is we usually do not do a good job of truly listening and obeying what God speaks to us. Peter may have had direct access here but so do we through the Holy Spirit! Do we turn the volume down on our conviction so that we can feel better about our sin? Do we excuse it instead of making it obedient to Christ? Are we in a constant cycle of lament and repent? Let's take some time to examine ourselves today before the Lord and ask where we are on the Peter-o-meter.   Are we the brash Peter who was all talk and no substance? Are we the Peter here in this verse who is not retaining the teachings of God or listening to His voice very well?   Because Peter eventually would get it right. He would give the first sermon at Pentecost that saw 3000 saved. He would go on to proclaim the Gospel of Jesus Christ until he was crucified himself, for what he believed.   Sure the Peter in Acts wasn't perfect -- none of us ever are. He still was confusing clean versus unclean for example.   But the inconsistencies we see in the Gospels had been largely corrected.

The way we avoid denying Christ is by remembering what He said. Let us take reading the Word seriously. Let us take seriously also retaining and applying the Word. There may be a sermon out there God wants us to preach. There may be 3000 reasons waiting for us to mature.

Rev. Anthony

Authors Bio:
Credentialed Minister of the Gospel for the Assemblies of God. Owner and founder of 828 ministries. Vice President for Goodwill Industries. Always remember that in all things God works for the good of those who love Him and are called according to His purpose.