Monday 5 Aug 2013

Monday Reading: Mark 14:66-72

Key Verse: Mark 14:72
72  And the second time the cock crew. And Peter called to mind the word that Jesus said unto him, Before the cock crow twice, thou shalt deny me thrice. And when he thought thereon, he wept.

Devotion:
When Christ was facing the enemy and being treated harshly, the disciples were not exactly giving Him much support. Peter was keeping his distance and acting as if he did not know Christ at all. The more that Peter was challenged, the more he withdrew from the role of disciple and the greater the separation from Christ. When we face dangers because of our beliefs, what are we going to do?

Sadly the most likely outcome is that we will cave in just as Peter was doing here because we start to go into some sort of survival mode where we stop thinking of others and start thinking of ourselves instead. Peter’s thoughts went from being a disciple who said he would follow Jesus to being an ordinary human who was in danger; the result was that he turned away from Christ and tried to survive by himself.

Peter very quickly realised his mistake when everything that Jesus had said would happen came to pass. When that cockerel crowed out he knew exactly what he had done in denying Jesus those three times. But still Christ continued to love him as He had done so before. Peter realised that God’s love goes far beyond what we think of and far beyond our emotional ways and states. Note that Peter did not take a few days to think about what he had done but rather knew immediately that he was at fault. Peter wanted to repent in his heart; something I’m sure God could see as well.

God wants us to know that when we do realise that we are sinners, He will be waiting patiently for us to repent from those sins. God wants us to know that we are sinners so that we can come back to Him. He wants to forgive us, but before He can do that we do have to realise that we are indeed sinners. Peter had to learn the hard way by seeing himself deny Christ three times before he realised where he was spiritually. We do not have to go through all of that in order to find peace with God.

Points to Ponder:
Do you stand up for yourself?

Do you stand up for God?