The Denial of Jesus

Verses: Luke 22 : 31 - 34

My thoughts about the verses:

The story is simple.  Peter who had done so many things was again put to the test.  Peter had faith but it often was tempted.  He would in one moment say that Jesus was the Messiah and in the next moment his faith would falter.

Sitting at the table that night Jesus looks at Peter and says that he has been praying for him.  That he had prayed that he would not lose his faith.  Now Peter as usual says don't worry Jesus I will never let you down.  I will go to prison or even die for you.  Yet, Jesus tells him that before that very night was over that he would deny him three times.  I know I can see the shocked expression on Peter's face.

See Jesus wanted us to realize that sometimes even the people that we see as having the strongest faith will be weak.  That no one is perfect.  There are times in our life that we will face different hardships and our faith will be  weak.  It isn't that we don't believe in Jesus.  It is just that fear that things will not work out for our good.

We all have people that we look up to.  We see them as being these very spiritual faithful people.  Yet, when they have their stumble like we all do we start to criticize them.  We have put so much of our trust in how they respond to Jesus that we lose our grip.  We miss that we have to stay focused on God and not judge how others are faithful.

The next time you see a brother or sister in Christ have one of those stumbles of faith do not judge.  Know that we will all go through our times of great faith and our times of no faith.  Those moments when we feel that God is doing all we need.  Those moments that we doubt God is there.  Those moments we offer our lives freely to the service of our Savior.  Those moments we run and hide because.

No matter where you are this moment know that God is there with you.  Your faith might be running low.  Yet, Gods faith and trust in us never falters. God knows when we struggle in our faith.  In those moments we are gently pushed back into the circle so that we can feel the presence of God.  Don't judge others for how their faith is today only worry about how your faith is.

Prayer:

Dear God thank you for loving us when our faith is weak.  Thank you for being with us as we go through life's struggles.  We thank you for carrying us in our hard times.  Help us keep focused on you.  Help us as we walk through life not to lose our faith in you.  In the name of the Creator we pray.  Amen

Questions:

Have you ever denied your relationship with God?  Have you ever felt your faith falter?  Is today the day that you allow God to help you rebuild your faith?