Peter said to Him,
"Lord, why can I not follow You now?" —John 13:37
{CHAMBERS} “[…] When God brings a time of waiting, and appears to be
unresponsive, don’t fill it with busyness, just wait. The time of waiting may
come to teach you the meaning of sanctification— to be set apart from sin and
made holy— or it may come after the process of sanctification has begun to
teach you what service means. Never run before God gives you His direction. If
you have the slightest doubt, then He is not guiding. Whenever there is doubt—
wait. […] …never act on the impulse of […] feeling. Peter did not wait for God.
He predicted in his own mind where the test would come, and it came where he
did not expect it. “I will lay down my life for Your sake.” Peter’s statement
was honest but ignorant. “Jesus answered him, ‘…the rooster shall not crow till
you have denied Me three times’ ” (John 13:38). […] Natural devotion may be
enough to attract us to Jesus[…] but it will never make us disciples. Natural
devotion will deny Jesus, always falling short of what it means to truly follow
Him.”
{ELGIN} (Zechariah 4:6) “‘Not by might nor by power, but by My Spirit,’ says
the Lord of hosts.” Peter thought that
he could do a spiritual thing through the strength of his own will. You know how that worked for him. It’s easy to sit in judgement over
Peter. Shaking our knowing heads. No way Peter! Who do you think you are? And yet, we are guilty of the same
thing. Trying to be Christians … do the
right thing … in the power of our flesh.
Letting our emotions be a poor substitute for the Spirit of God. Thinking that our own plans are equal with
the plans and will of God. Essentially
denying the sovereignty of God .. trying to be our own god. What! No way you say. Yes way!
Everything we do .. everything we say .. what we think .. what we want
.. should be .. must be … in the context of whose we are and who God is. Look … our life after our rebirth is a
struggle. Our old nature wants to rule
and guide, but our new nature has another ruler and another guide. In all fairness to Peter, he had not received
the Holy Spirit so he lacked the power to be and do in a way that would
overcome. Read this account of Peter
being confronted after he received the Spirit of God.
(Acts 4:5-11) “The next day the rulers, the elders and the teachers
of the law met in Jerusalem. Annas the high priest was there, and so were
Caiaphas, John, Alexander and others of the high priest’s family. They had
Peter and John brought before them and began to question them: “By what power
or what name did you do this?” Then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, said to
them: “Rulers and elders of the people! If we are being called to account today
for an act of kindness shown to a man who was lame and are being asked how he
was healed, then know this, you and all the people of Israel: It is by the name
of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified but whom God raised from the
dead, that this man stands before you healed. Jesus is “‘the stone you builders rejected, which
has become the cornerstone.’”
Is that the same guy that
denied Jesus before people around a fire?
Yes and no. It was Peter, but the
new Peter not the old one. Now Peter
could have stood before those religious leaders, even with the Spirit in him
and responded with his flesh. If he had,
he would have failed just like before. The
first time, Peter did not glorify God, he protected himself. The second time, he did glorify God at the
peril of prison or worse. The difference
was who he was trusting in. (Psalm 20:6-8) “Now this I know: The
Lord gives victory to his anointed. He answers him from his heavenly sanctuary with
the victorious power of his right hand. Some trust in chariots and
some in horses, but we trust in the name of the Lord our God. They are brought
to their knees and fall, but we rise up and stand firm.”
That can be you as you face
life each day. You will always be tested
to trust in yourself and not God. To
respond to a situation with emotion and not devotion. If you are wondering where the victory in
Jesus is in daily living .. that may be the root of your problem. You are trying to do what only God can do
through you. Examine your heart. Draw close to God through the Word and
prayer. Pick up your cross daily and
follow Jesus.
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