"Blessed is he who keeps from stumbling over Me. "
Matthew 11:6
WHACK!
Read It: John 18:1-11
Peter is one of the most colorful characters in the Bible. Someone has said that Peter must have worn "peppermint socks" since he put his foot in his mouth so much. He was definitely a spur-of-the-moment guy. Given Peter's nature, it's not surprising that he missed some shots and had some spiritual rebounding to do. As we wrap up our four weeks of devotional studies on spiritual rebounding, we will see Peter's failure and how he bounced back. Even though Easter is behind us by now, we're going to revisit the Garden of Gethsemane, the events leading up to the Cross, and a very important post-resurrection appearance of Jesus Christ. Peter was a key figure in all these events, so we are going to follow him around this week. Peter had made it clear he would travel to the cross with Jesus (Matthew 26:33). He was saying, "You can count on Your home boy here." People are usually hard on Peter for saying this, but I think his intentions tions were good. A lot of us are like Peter. We have good intentions, we make great promises, we vow great spiritual vows-only to find our lives collapse around us. Almost any believer can find something to identify with in the life of Peter. In John 18 we find the familiar story of Jesus and the inner circle of disciples in the Garden. When the soldiers came to arrest Jesus, Peter whacked off the ear of a man named Malchus. On a human level, we might applaud Peter. We might say, "Good for Peter! He doesn't take any stuff.
You get close to Peter, you will go earless. less. This guy doesn't play" But Jesus rebuked him. "Peter, you have missed the point. This scenario is My Father's will." Here is a fundamental issue we all face when it comes to walking with God and keeping our lives from collapsing. That is, we need to make sure we are not analyzing events from a worldly point of view, but rather from a spiritual, godly point of view. This was Peter's problem as he assessed the situation in Gethsemane and jumped in with the wrong solution. Think About It We are usually quick to adopt the world's methods of addressing our lives rather than adopting God's methods.
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