SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 6/27/2022 8:19 AM
My Worship Time Focus:
PT-2 “Proof of His Divine Love”
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference:
Matt. 14:28-31
Message of the verses: “28 And Peter
answered Him and said, "Lord, if it is You, command me to come to You on
the water." 29 And He said, "Come!" And Peter got out of the
boat, and walked on the water and came toward Jesus. 30 But seeing the wind, he
became afraid, and beginning to sink, he cried out, saying, "Lord, save
me!" 31 And immediately Jesus stretched out His hand and took hold of him,
and said to him, "O you of little faith, why did you doubt?’”
In
his commentary on Matthew John MacArthur writes the following insightful
paragraph on Peter, and I have to say that I do agree with all of it but
perhaps one point and I will explain that after I quote this paragraph. “Peter did many things for which he can be
faulted. But he is sometimes faulted for
things that reflect love, courage, and faith as much as brashness or cowardice. For instance, although he denied the Lord
while in the courtyard during Jesus’ trial, he was nevertheless there, as close
to Him as he could get. The rest of the
disciples were nowhere to be found. On
the Mount of Transfiguration, Peter’s suggestion was unwise but it was prompted
by sincere devotion: ‘Lord, it is good
for us to be here; if You wish, I will make three tabernacles here, one for
You, and one for Moses, and one for Elijah’ (Matt. 17:4). He genuinely loved Jesus and sincerely wanted
to serve and please Him. Peter did not
resist Jesus’ washing his feet because of pride, but because, in his deep
humility, he could not conceive of His Lord washing the feet of anyone so
unworthy. And when Jesus explained the
significance of what He was doing, Peter said, ‘Lord, not my feet only, but
also my hands and my head’(John 13:9).”
Now
as far as “unwise” statement that Peter made on the Mount of Transfiguration, a
while back I was reading historical novels.
The wife would pretty much do the writing, and the husband the research
for the novels. Brook and Bodie Tannae
are the author’s names and they have written many wonderful books that all have
to do with the Bible characters. At any
rate in one of their books they depict what happened on the Mount of
Transfiguration and they thought was that the time they were all up there was the
time of the “Feast of the Booths” and so Peter was simply saying that he would
make these booths for all who was up there.
I guess you can take that or leave it alone.
As
we study the different gospels, and this is the third one that I have studied
recently and one of the things you find is that Peter is continually in the
Lord’s shadow and footsteps. Now if we
can read between the lines of these gospel accounts, it is not too difficult to
imagine that Peter sometimes followed so closely behind Jesus that he would
bump into Him when Jesus stopped. (I would say that is following pretty
close.) Peter sensed in Jesus’ presence
a wonderful safety and comfort, and that is where Peter now wanted to be. It was safer to be with Jesus on the water
than to be without Him in the boat.
I
get the sense that in many ways that Peter is kind of like me, in that his love
for Jesus was not at all perfect, but was weak.
I can surely understand that, and the reason for me is that by becoming
a believer near the age of 27 that I had a lot of sinful living done in those
first 26+ years of my life, and perhaps Peter’s life before Christ was like
that too. Remember when Jesus did the
miracle of catching a great many fish in Peter’s boat that Peter told Him to
get away from him because he was a sinner?
I know that feeling very well too.
In the end of the gospel of John Jesus asked Peter if he loved Him three
times, and each time Peter responded affirmatively. Jesus did not contradict Peter’s answer but
He reminded him of his obligation to care for his Master’s sheep and warned him
the great cost his love would demand found in John 21:15-18. I suppose many of my readers will remember
that tradition says that Peter was crucified upside down because he did not
feel worthy of being crucified the way His Lord was crucified.
Spiritual meaning for my life today: I know that some of the things that Peter did
reminds me of myself, like not having enough patience and other things, but one
thing is for sure that it is my desire to love the Lord like Peter did, and His
love for the Lord grew a great deal after Pentecost as it was after that that
he was filled with the Holy Spirit.
My Steps of Faith for Today: To love the Lord more fully.
6/27/2022 8:54 AM
No comments:
Post a Comment