by David Brenneman
"And Peter remembered the statement that Jesus had made: “Before a rooster crows, you will deny Me three times.” And he went out and wept bitterly." Matthew 26:75 NASB
Does your sin bother you at all?
Does what you think concerning sin cause you to think about your lowly position?
It's common to read about this part of Matthew as we approach Easter. We read, we emphasize with Peter and knowing how it turned out for him, in most cases, we move on. Not staying a while in this passage. Not staying a while in the restoration of Peter.
In something like this passage we all have likely said or thought or done something that wasn't in-line with what we said we believed.
We may have even denied what we believe concerning Jesus before others to keep from feeling a certain way. We may have been either upset with ourselves and taken it out on God. May have blamed ourselves for something and took that to mean that there was something between us and God.
I have had a significant time in my life, many decades ago, of a moment similar to Peter between me and God. It's here in the Scriptures for a reason, right there with the Prodigal Son story.
I saw as a challenge to my beliefs this past week something concerning this.
Satan would love nothing more than for us to believe that we are out of reach from God’s grace and mercy.
He would love for us to turn the other way at sin's guilt by having an acceptance of it in our lives to become desensitized to it.
He would love for us to learn to live two lives. One the world sees and what we do around believers.
Our Lord’s enemy is our enemy.
We are at war. Get that thought through to your heart and mind. You are fooling yourself if you think you can pursue joy and peace on your own apart from your relationship with Jesus. That you can dabble into worldly things and not get burned. Satan's designed the temptations of this world. He's had a few thousand years to perfect them.
We read through the Gospels and indeed a denial takes place. A denial of self is what's taught to the 12. Peter's denial of his relationship with Jesus while painful, isn't unexpected. Peter believed his answers were keeping him close to Jesus and proving that he wasn't going to desert Jesus. Remember that's what came first. Jesus said they all would leave Him. Peter's thoughts were around trying to prove God wrong, for a simple way to put it.
We, not unlike children, want to prove that we can handle things that God brings into our lives on our own. We let go of God's hand and run into the fire.
Was reading a thing on Facebook about this.
We need to know that we know that we know who we are in Christ, and that He is behind the work in our lives. We need to be ready for the major and the minor changes He will make in our lives. We need to be the same in the world as we are before believers. We need to indeed to never let go of the hand that holds ours.
In the last 6 months we have seen a great many different things that has God’s fingerprints all over them in our lives. We are left in awe, stunned and amazed. We do not know nor understand how or why we have been so blessed.
The Bible says that we should let our yes be yes and our no be no. Anything else is not of God. Are you playing with fire in parts of your life? Are you flirting with sin because you call it something else? Are you living where you shouldn't be, and honesty God’s shown you where He wants you to go but your excuses keep you where you are? Are you denying your feelings to keep from changing? Peter was changed by his experience. Depression hit him hard. He lost his footing spiritually. Jesus met him where he was. Jesus not only forgave him, but restored him. He healed his depression and set him back on his Spiritual feet.
We cannot live lives of any form of denial concerning what Jesus wants of us.
We are not our own workmanship. Oh how the world tries to tell us differently!
We are not here to build our lives around ourselves.
We are not here to see how much of the world we can live with and not get burned.
We are HIS workmanship... created in Christ Jesus FOR good works that we might walk in them.
We will always face some form of denial. It's Satan's most used attack. We deny this is "that bad". We deny what we do has or would change us.
Denial of a problem keeps the problem.
Perhaps you have heard it said that admission of a problem is the first step in the cure.
We lie to ourselves daily. We indeed love things in this world. Satan's temptations hit us with well aimed things and thoughts. We cannot face sin without being burned.
We need to be in Christ at all times. Setting our minds in things above and not on the things of this world.
A surefire way to learn about your own deceptions is to pray and ask the Spirit to show you. Be forewarned. You WILL be shown and you won't be ready for what you see. You then will need to do what's right in God's eyes. Scripture says that He who knows the good he ought to do and doesn't do it, sins.
If God's been telling you to move, to change jobs, to trust Him, to take a leap of faith...and you keep denying that He's telling you anything...read what I just wrote. You know and you are denying. You know what you ought to be doing and are not. You are sinning.
To deny ourselves and take up our own cross and follow Christ Jesus is what He said to do. We want to find peace and joy and contentment in what is in our world, the God of the Bible says its only found in Him.
Does your life bother you in any area? Does your joy seem forced?
Does your sin bother you?
Do you really want what God wants for you?
Are you living for your own desires or are you living for your Saviors?
Are you in denial of where and what God's wanting to do in your life?
By doing so...by living in denial...by not obeying...you are also not being a part of the body of Christ.
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