Thoughts of Grace

Buster says, ” YOU weren’t using it!”

Luke 22:32
But I have prayed for thee,
that thy faith fail not:
and when thou art converted,
strengthen thy brethren.

There may be no other disciple in the New Testament
with which so many believers today can personally
indentify than Simon Peter.
He was passionate and headstrong; quick to repent,
and even sometimes quicker to blow it once more.
His life unfolds before us in great drama,
speaking time and and time again to the issues
that lay within our own hearts.

Jesus told Peter, “Satan has desired you,
that he might sift you as wheat.”
That’s probably not anything
you would want to hear from the Lord, is it?
But He goes on to say,
“I have prayed for you, that your faith not fail.
And after you have come through your time of testing,
turn to your companions and give them a fresh start”
(Luke 22:32 The Message).

The testing came in the Garden that night
when Jesus was arrested and Peter ultimately fell –
denying that he even knew Jesus.
We know from Scripture that after the rooster crowed,
“Peter went out and wept bitterly.” (Luke 22:62).
It would be the last time he saw Jesus until after the resurrection.

Can you imagine how tortured his soul must have been?
We can hear the hissing whispers of the Accuser
blasting him mercilesly for denying Jesus,
for leaving Him in the hands of those who murdered Him.
All hope was lost; Peter had nothing left to live for now.

But then something happened. Jesus rose from the dead.

Oh what a difference that made for Peter….and for us!
Peter wrote,
“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,
which according to his abundant mercy
has begotten us again unto a lively hope
by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead!”
1 Peter 1:3
~~Rylie