Peter, love his heart, had good intentions when he followed the Lord. In the 21st chapter of the book of John, we see a child-like side of Peter as he jumped excitedly out of the boat into the sea as soon as he realized it was Jesus calling out to them from the shore. We see a zealous and protective side of Peter when he cut of Malchus' ear in retaliation of his Savior's unlawful arrest. In all of his times with Jesus, we can see that Peter loved Him dearly. Peter's only problem was his lack of faith in what was going to happen and in his sin-corrupted flesh, he innocently lied to the Lord about his complete devotion to Him. You know the story. After the Passover Feast, Jesus told them that they would fall away and Peter, believing in his true commitment to the Lord (faith in self), told the Lord that even though the others will fall, he will not (Matt 26:33). Jesus, being omniscient, told Peter that even he would deny him 3 times before the rooster crowed. Innocently yet foolishly, Peter replies right after with: "Even if I must die with you, I will not deny you!" (v. 35)
You know what happens after. After they arrested Jesus, Peter and the other disciples took off running. If you backtrack to the feast, Jesus hinted to Peter that a prophecy was about to be fulfilled when He quoted the words of the prophet Zechariah found in Zechariah 13:7.
"...Strike the shepherd and the sheep will be scattered..." Zech 13:7
"Then Jesus said to them, “You will all fall away because of me this night. For it is written, ‘I will strike the shepherd, and the sheep of the flock will be scattered.'" Matt 26:31
How many times have we acted like the Apostle Peter? We have good intentions when we serve and speak to the Lord, we say we love Him but seem to lack in faith or even when tried, we high-tail it! What are some things in your life that are hindering you from serving Christ better that makes you make empty promises to the Lord about how you will stop doing a certain thing in your life but you still seem to fall into that same nasty pit? I can't tell you how many promises I've made to the Lord and have broken almost all of them. I keep telling Him that I will stop worrying about a certain issue, keep telling Him that I'll do this or do that but in this old flesh of mine, I keep falling back to the same routine. After that ole Rooster crowed, Jesus locked eyes with Peter on purpose. The Bible says that they both heard the crow and Jesus purposefully turned around to meet eyes with Peter. At that moment, what must have felt like his heart falling to the pit of his stomach, Peter went away and wept bitterly. Wept bitterly. A grown man, confident in his "commitment" to following Christ even unto death, ran again but this time, he was sobbing uncontrollably. His heart was broken and he was devastated. He was devastated because it took the Lord to open his eyes to see that in and of himself, Peter cannot follow Christ if his confidence is in his own strength.
This was a defining moment for Peter. I do not believe that the Lord was angry. I do believe He was sad more than anything. I also believe that this was a lesson to Peter, a lesson that gave Peter a strength that he had never had before until after his eyes were locked with Jesus at that moment. Does this sound familiar? Remember when Peter said he could walk out on the water to Jesus and was in complete confidence right up until he took his eyes off of Jesus and started to sink? We can learn all kinds of things from Peter because WE ARE PETER. When Jesus was arrested, Peter lost focus of Jesus just like he did on those waters. Instead of staying awake and praying (what he and the others should have been doing), Peter woke up and went stab-happy with a sharp weapon when company arrived. Losing his focus, Peter ran. We also run, don't we?
Our promises to the Lord are futile unless our focus and our eyes are on the Lord Jesus constantly. We have to do the opposite of what Peter did, though. We have to admit in the beginning, that we are nothing without Christ. We have to rely on His strength alone and put our confidence where it should be, IN Christ.
That moment of eye contact with the Lord was the defining moment that Peter needed in his life and he didn't realize it then but we see a different and more bold Peter after that encounter. Before the Lord ascended into Heaven, He commanded the Apostles to go out into the world and be His witnesses (Acts 1:8). Peter did just that. Peter was ultimately crucified upside down (at his request) around 66 AD in Rome because of his newfound boldness. That emotional collapse he had, created within him, a more focused Peter. His focus led him to the cross like his Savior but glory to God, the pain wouldn't last long because Peter's confidence was in knowing that Christ was waiting for him on the other side.
If you are anything like me, we can relate to the Apostle Peter. Our promises might be empty, but the Bible tells us that it is impossible for God to lie to us. He never breaks His promises and here are 4 verses to give you just that hope:
"God is not man, that He should lie, or a son of man, that He should change His mind. Has He said, and will He not do it? Or has He spoken, and will He not fulfill it?" Numbers 23:19
"And also the Glory of Israel will not lie or have regret, for He is not a man, that He should have regret." I Samuel 15:29
"So that by two unchangeable things in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have taken refuge would have strong encouragement to take hold of the hope set before us." Hebrews 6:18
"Once I have sworn by My holiness; I will not lie to David." Psalm 89:35
It is also important that we focus on the Lord at all times. Let us not act like the disciples did in the garden and sleep. We have to pray without ceasing and always keep our eyes on the Lord or we will fail. There is also beauty in God's forgiveness when we do fail. He loves you and He will never leave you nor forsake you and that's a promise you can bet your life on. Peter did.
