Proverbs 20:9 Who can say, “I have kept my heart pure; I am clean and without sin”?
Have you ever experienced that Peter moment when Jesus turns and looks you in the eye? When you mess up and sin, and in the moment of knowing that fact, an ominous Peter moment comes upon you. Luke 22:61 And the Lord turned and looked at Peter. Then Peter remembered the word the Lord had spoken to him: “Before the rooster crows today, you will deny Me three times.” 62 And he went outside and wept bitterly. We have all been disappointed in ourselves for missing the mark God has set before us. The realization of it is as if Jesus looks at you in the eyes and you know that you know you need to repent.
That moment after denying God by disobeying Him is when the conviction of God’s love persuades our hearts to repent. The repentance must be on God’s terms, however, many times our flesh wants to rise with a promise to God that from that moment on, we will be the soul of exactitude and will never fall again, but, like the empty promises of an alcoholic who is in denial, we do fall again. Our flesh always wants to take over the repenting process. The Holy Spirit directs us to repent, and we start directing the guidelines and conditions of our repentance. Prov. 20:9 Who can say, “I have kept my heart pure; I am clean and without sin”? Will we ever get out of God’s redemptive way and let Him do His work in us? God’s forgiving grace is life-giving and will establish the assurance of faith within us. How can any man manufacture that amazing grace?
We do not want to be the reason or give Satan the ammunition to stand before God and accuse us of sin that we willfully took part in. Rev. 12:10b For the accuser of our brothers and sisters, who accuses them before our God day and night, has been hurled down. What we want in our lives is the declaration from the Lord, “Well done faithful servant!” Instead of giving Satan a legitimate sin report to shoot off his mouth about, we should be looking for the eyes of Jesus to affirm His righteousness at work within us while giving us the grace to overcome sin.
After Jesus had risen from the dead, He began the restoration of Peter’s heart and affirmed the love God had for him. When Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of James had gone to the tomb of Jesus, they met someone who said to them. Mark 16:7 Now go and tell His disciples, including Peter, that Jesus is going ahead of you to Galilee. You will see Him there, just as He told you before He died. Go tell my disciples and Peter to meet Me in Galilee and the healing can start. Make sure Peter knows to head in the direction of his redemption that only Jesus can provide.
We can learn from Christ’s counselling that was given to Peter. Jesus went right to the crux of the matter. Love must be at the root of our relationship with the risen Christ, and what is on the Lord’s agenda is the agenda we are to adopt. In Peter’s case, love was established and the agenda was clear. John 21:15 After breakfast Jesus asked Simon Peter, “Simon son of John, do you love me more than these?” “Yes, Lord,” Peter replied, “you know I love you.” “Then feed my lambs,” Jesus told him. For Peter, feeding the Lord’s lambs was the love language that would help him grow in his love for God. The former Peter moment that brought condemnation had turned into an ah-ha love moment of clarity. Jesus had always loved Peter, even throughout Peter’s denial. Jesus was demonstrating His love by giving Peter’s heart the grace to fulfill what would be a life assignment in the kingdom of God.
What Peter moments are you still fretting over? What was the sinful event in your life that made you feel like you could never come back to believing the love God has for you? We need to remember that Christ rose from the dead so that we could be free of all the sins the devil has accused us of for decades. Like Peter, we have to turn our bad moments into an ah-ha moment where we accept the forgiveness of God through Christ and get on with the calling in our lives. We need to believe in the love that God has for us. 1John 4:16a And we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us.
When we repent of our sins, that is not when God finds out about them, that is when we get rid of them through the Lord’s love and mercy. The power that is in the righteous blood of our Lord Jesus will take away our sin and reproach that envelops our hearts. This amazing salvation is continually working within us every moment of the day. All we have to do is rest in it and believe it by faith. People are always chasing happiness. True happiness is walking in God’s forgiveness. Psalm 32:1 O the happiness of him whose transgression is forgiven, Whose sin is covered. Happy is that man!
0 Comments