John 13:37 Peter asked, "Lord, why can't I follow you now? I will lay down my life for you.
Peter was ready. Or so he thought. He was a man driven by his emotions – a man who didn’t want to bother with the “ready…set…” part of the “go” equation. He “felt” strongly, and it was upon the basis of his feelings that he questioned Jesus “Why can’t I follow you now?” He knew he loved his Lord, and so strong were his feelings of love and devotion at that moment, he was confident that not even threat of death would sway him. But Jesus knew Peter better than Peter knew himself. He knew that once the passion of the moment had cooled, Peter would succumb to his emotions once again, this time to fear, and it would result in the heartbreaking denial of the savior who’d only hours before inspired this promise of devotion till death. Jesus undoubtedly knew that the time would come when Peter would lay down his life for Him, but he knew that the time was not yet at hand. And as with anything, timing is everything.
There are times when you cannot understand why you cannot do what you want to do. When God brings the blank space, see that you do not fill it in, but wait. The blank space may come in order to teach you what sanctification means, or it may come after sanctification to teach you what service means. Never run before God’s guidance. If there is the slightest doubt, then He is not guiding. Whenever there is doubt – don’t.
We often want to fill in those blank spaces. We don’t want to wait for the right timing, we just want to plow ahead and some of us become so overcome with the power of our emotions, we believe that they will sustain us. Whenever we depend upon our feelings, we will always be met by disappointment. Sometimes even disaster. When Peter claimed unwavering loyalty to Jesus, there was nothing deceitful in his words. He meant it, and believed it with every fiber of his being. But Peter was nothing if not naïve. He believed that the passion of the moment was enough to carry him through the trials ahead. Jesus knew better. Peter believed in the power of his “feelings” while Jesus recognized the power of Peter’s humanity, and how it would ultimately betray him. Chambers goes on to explain:
Peter did not wait on God; he forecast in his mind where the test would come, and the test came where he did not expect it.
This is the essence of the issue, isn’t it? I find that anticipated confrontations often fail to materialize while unexpected conflicts continually catch me completely unprepared. Sadly, I find that when “the tests come where I don’t expect them” I am almost always disappointed in myself and my reactions to them.
We can attempt to prepare ourselves for those trials we foresee, but when we allow God to work in us, He prepares us for whatever we encounter, anticipated or not. He does a work in us that transcends our emotions. We must learn to depend upon our Lord and not our hearts. We need to replace the confidence in ourselves, with confidence in the Holy Spirit who sustains us.
I loved this statement from today's Oz: "When we have come to the end of ourselves, not in imagination but really, we are able to receive the Holy Spirit." Just as Jesus, though He was the Son of God, EMPTIED himself and became a servant, so must we empty ourselves of all our preconceived notions, our prejudices and our pride.
ReplyDelete