The truth is, this very night, before the rooster crows, you will deny me three times. Matthew 26:34
He really did love Jesus. Yet, when the Roman soldiers and others in the menacing crowd begin to identify him as one of Jesus' disciples the night Jesus was arrested, knowing he might be beaten and arrested too, Peter denied Jesus not just once, but three times.
You would think that Peter's life as a disciple would have ended the night he betrayed Jesus. For afterwards he had to live with the bitter and daily reality of the failure that had occurred in his life.
Yet Jesus saw something special in Peter and was not going to allow Peter's failure to destroy him. For Jesus had called Peter to be a fisher of men and although Peter had denied him, he was not going to allow Satan to "sift him like wheat." So on a sandy beach one day after Jesus rose for the dead, he asked Peter to join him for breakfast with the other disciples and offered him not only a hot breakfast of fish and bread, but a plate filled with forgiveness and restoration.
Isn't it good to know Jesus offers the same things to us when we fail? So remember that when you fail, it does not have to destroy you. Instead let it transform you into the person God has called you to be - a person he wants to use to do great things for His kingdom.
Sharing the Word,
Jeaninne
Prayer: Father, thank you that my failures are designed not to destroy me but to help me turn into the person you have created me to be. Amen.
