Wednesday 11 Jun 2014

June 11: Matthew 16:13-19

Key Verse: Matthew 16:17
Jesus answered and said to him, “Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but My Father who is in heaven.

Devotion:
When Simon was asked who he thought Jesus actually was, his answer was that Jesus was the Christ, the Son of the living God. That marked the point where Jesus starts calling Simon Peter because Jesus saw in him a belief and trust in God Himself. That depth of knowledge comes from God showing us what things mean, showing us what the bible means and opening our hearts to see how much He actually loves us.

Each one of us will probably face a point in our lives where things start to make sense as we put things together and they add up to the truth. Yes there are times when we think we know and we fall flat on our faces the next day because we did not understand; but when we are willing to listen to God with open hearts and open minds then He is going to try to explain our lot in life. Peter was willing to accept Christ’s word, His will and His teaching and to move forward with that truth to show it to others. Yes Peter still had a few bridges to cross as he faced up with rejection from others, but he was facing in the right direction now.

Don’t get worried that you do not know it all because it will take the rest of your life to continue learning about God and about Christ and about the Holy Spirit, but you are pointing in the right direction when you take them as the truth and trust in God. From that point on you have God working on your side and nothing should be able to stop you.

Don’t fret when you do get things wrong or when you do break down because you can’t cope with the strain of working for God when the world around you is working against you. It is not easy work and it is not straight forward; if that were so then we would see many more people running around telling others about God all the time. When we work against the world we find just how high a mountain it is to climb and then we begin to realise just how much we do have to rely on God!

Points to Ponder:
Do you find working for God hard work?

If you don’t, are you doing the right thing?