You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind. "
Matthew 22:37
"DO YOU LOVE ME?"
Read It: John 21:1-17
It's obvious from today's reading that even though Peter hit bottom in .denying Christ, the other disciples still followed his lead (v. 3). Peter went fishing. That's what he was doing when he first met Jesus. Peter was so messed up that he had gone back to doing what he was doing before he became Jesus' disciple. But notice that they caught nothing. ing. When you are out of the will of God, guess what you catch? Nothing. When you are out of the will of God, you cannot produce. Peter had lost his vision for ministry. He was probably asking himself, "Can God still use me?" The answer was about to come when grace showed up the next morning in the person of Jesus Christ. Jesus answered Peter's question with the miracle catch of fish. The good news is that when you get right with God, you become productive again.
When you get right with God, no matter how low you have gone, no matter far away you've strayed, things begin to happen again. After breakfast we see one of the greatest demonstrations of God's grace you'll ever see. In this famous exchange Jesus restored Peter three times for his three denials. He invited him back into the fold, back into His service. He told him, "You can leave your fish now and feed My little lambs." We don't have room here to go into all the details of these verses, but the bottom line is that Peter reaffirmed his devotion to Jesus, and Jesus gave him another chance. Peter was restored to fellowship with his Lord and recommissioned for his apostolic ministry. People wonder sometimes about Peter. How could Jesus give this guy another shot at such an important ministry after he had failed so miserably? ably? Well, to answer that all we have to do is look in the mirror and say, "Lord Jesus, how can You keep forgiving and using me when I fail You so often?" What happened on that seashore is that Peter finally told Jesus the absolute truth. He came clean with the Lord. Have you? Think About It A lot of us lie to the Lord. We say, "I love You," when our lives say, "I don't know if I even like You."
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