Most of us have experience a roller-coaster ride at Disney World or some other amusement park. One moment you're ascending to the top and the next your descending down to the bottom. A lot of us can identify with Peter. He's on a high revealing who Christ is, but next he's is at the bottom, with his foot in his mouth, being rebuked for saying those things that are far from God.
All of us have allowed our flesh to botch things up and have said things that were not from God. In Matthew 16, Jesus ask Peter; "Who do men say that I am?" Peter says, "Some Lord say that your Elijah or a prophet. Jesus then ask, "Who do you say that I am? Peter says, "Thou art the Christ, the son of the living God." Jesus says "Peter, flesh and blood hath not revealed this to you but my father which is in heaven."
Peter then comes off his high mountain, turns around and rebukes Jesus for foretelling his disciples that He must go to Jerusalem and suffer things before His mission is over here on earth. Peter declares, "Never Lord " Jesus says to Peter, "get thee behind me Satan."
What would the Lord do with Peter now? What would become of him after this rebuke? Would Jesus throw him away, would he send him to the junkyard? It's interesting to me how at one moment Peter's trajectory path is saying things from the Lord, and the next be so far off in left field.
Now Jesus has said to Peter, "Get thee behind me Satan, thou sayest not the things that be from God." Is it now over for Peter? Is he finished? Would the Lord change his mind about Peter's future? "Absolutely not." In Matthew 17, Jesus selects Peter, James and John. He takes them up on a high mountain. Suddenly appears Moses and Elijah. Why would the Lord be includimg Peter in this experience on a high mountain after a failure, after really botching things up? After blowing it?
Yes, Jesus takes Peter, one that he has chosen and is transfigured before he and James and John. What is Peter doing in the bunch? Didn't he just miss it? Didn't he just blow it, didn't he just rebuke Christ in moving forward with his Father's plan? Why didn't the Lord throw Peter out of this glorious moment in history?
Jesus is showing you and I that none of us is righteous, none of us are perfect, and none of us deserve to be caught up into these heavenly moments. Jesus reminds all of us, "The calling of God is without repentance." God never changes his mind about the call on your life. You may really mess things up with your life, but that will never change the call, the mandate, the assignment that God has for you.
In the name of Jesus, "Get up and move forward with God's love and mercy and compassion and call that will never change over your life." The Lord wasn't through with Peter and he's not about to change his mind about you. Eccl 7:8 Better is the end of a thing than the beginning thereof, and the patient in spirit is better than the proud in spirit."
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