Your life does not need to end in disaster
“And the angel said, “don’t be alarmed. You are looking for Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified. He isn’t here ! He is risen from the dead ! Look this is where they laid his body. Now, go 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.” Mark 16:6-7 NLT
Why do you think the messenger, when he told these three women to go tell the disciples, added “including Peter ?” Wasn’t he one of Jesus disciples? Or was it possible that Peter had assumed he lost the privilege of being called one of his disciples? After all, he had just betrayed and denied Jesus three times. He had failed Jesus and acted like he never knew him.
Just maybe this messenger knew that Peter would really need a little extra encouragement that Jesus still considered Peter one of his disciples. Even though he denied Jesus, Jesus was not going to deny him.
Have you ever thought about the fact that at this point in time there was not much difference between what Judas did and what Peter did? They both betrayed him.
They both failed Jesus. The difference is how they responded to what they did. We need to understand that we all have failed Jesus. What are we going to do about it?
Have you ever thought about the fact that if Judas had repented, he could have been the most powerful disciple of all ?
These two disciples took what they had done and decided to do two very different things. One repented and was filled with the Holy Spirit and the other stayed condemned and ended up dying a horrible death.
Satan’s goal is get us to the place of despair where we will give up and die. He takes the truth and twists it where we make the decision that we are horrible and deserve nothing good. We see this with how many people decide to commit suicide or go on a rampage and commit mass murders. This is his plan, this is his goal.
The truth is we are failures and we do mess up. But the rest of the story is that Jesus rose from the grave in order that we can to ! You don’t have to stay in your despair, you can allow Jesus to raise you from the dead, just like he did Peter.
The key is, as you become sorry for how you have failed, you reach out to Jesus and ask Him to help you succeed. This is the whole purpose to Jesus telling the disciples to wait around til you receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.
We cannot succeed without His help. The good news is all you have to do to get His help is to ask for it ! “For whoever will call on the name of the Lord will be saved.” Romans 10:13 Nasb
We need to remember who we have living inside us! “You dear children, are from God and have overcome them, because the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world.” 1 John 4:4
You need to put the past behind and go forward in the power of His Spirit. The best is yet to come!
Mark says
Nelson, that was awesome. What great revelation and very encouraging. Thanks for sharing that with us.