I’ve been a little unfocused lately… a little out of my game… Come to think of it, every time that I turn around, I seem to find myself coming up short, failing at something or other on a daily basis. You might say it’s become a bit of a routine. Why can’t I be consistent in my Scripture study? Why do I find it so incredibly hard to get alone, be still and just be in conversation with God? Why do I find it so difficult to be sacrificial with my time? Will I never be able to put my wife’s needs and desires before my own without her having to tell me? WHAT IS WRONG WITH ME?! Probably the same thing that was wrong with Simon Peter. I’m a miserable failure.Peter was as impulsive and enthusiastic as a follower of Jesus could get. But when Jesus informed the Twelve that each one of them would abandon Him, Peter’s reaction was, “Jesus, I don’t care what you say, there is NO WAY that I will abandon you! I’ll go wherever you go even if I have to die!” Jesus turned to Peter and said, “I tell you the truth Peter, that tonight, before the rooster crows, you will disown me three times!” Sure enough, soon after Jesus was arrested and put on trial, Peter denied even knowing Jesus not once, not twice, but thrice. Despite his best intentions, Peter failed Jesus. Kind of reminds me of myself.
I could stop right there, but the incredible thing is… That’s not the end of the story! Three days later, after a long night fishing, the disciples spotted Jesus walking along the shore. Peter jumps out of the boat into the water and swims to the shore to be welcomed by the God whom he had failed so miserably! That’s the hope that we have today. We have the unchangeable promise of an unchangeable God of grace who knows every disgusting thing about us and yet holds us in the midst of our failures. He already knows us and yet he’s calling us deeper in to service and relationship with Himself. We may be failures, but we are victorious failures!
“I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, and his incomparably great power for us who believe. That power is like the working of his mighty strength, which he exerted in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms.” –Ephesians 1:18-20
