Scroll through social media long enough and it looks like everybody else has it all together. Perfect kitchens, perfect families, perfect faith. Real life is a lot messier than that, and so was the life of one of the men who walked closest to Jesus.
Nothing about Peter was perfect or polished. An in-depth character study of Peter quickly reveals he deeply needed an abundant and unending supply of grace, mercy, and peace from Jesus Christ.
A man of spiritual mistakes and human flaws
Scriptures about Peter illustrate he was:
- Impulsive & Irrational: Peter often spoke or acted before thinking. A prime example is when he cut off the ear of the high priest’s servant during Jesus’s arrest.
- Overconfident & Prideful: Peter suffered from a false sense of spiritual superiority. He loudly boasted that even if all other disciples abandoned Jesus, he never would.
- Fearful & Cowardly: When his personal safety was threatened during Jesus’s trial, Peter broke down under pressure and denied knowing Jesus three times to protect himself from the crowd.
- Doubtful & Lacked Focus: While Peter had the great faith to step out of the boat and briefly walk on water toward Jesus, he quickly lost focus, became more aware of the wind and waves, and allowed his doubt and fear to sink him.
- Lacked Spiritual Vigilance: On the night of Jesus’s deep agony in the Garden of Gethsemane, and despite Jesus explicitly asking him to stay awake and pray, Peter repeatedly fell asleep.
In short… Peter was a man of spiritual mistakes and human flaws, and so are we! Friends, we aren’t any different, and we can deeply relate to Peter’s life.
An experience as life-changing as ours
In 2 Peter 1:1-2, Peter sheds light on the recipients of his intended letter.
I, Simon Peter, am a servant and apostle of Jesus Christ. I write this to you whose experience with God is as life-changing as ours, all due to our God’s straight dealing and the intervention of our God and Savior, Jesus Christ. Grace and peace to you many times over as you deepen in your experience with God and Jesus, our Master.
Peter says their experience with God is as life-changing as his own. According to Peter, that life-changing experience is due to God’s direct dealing with their sin through the salvation work of Jesus Christ, the only remedy and intervention. Peter then reminds them it’s the grace, peace, and mercy, in abundant supply, that can deepen their experience with Jesus Christ.
When Peter compares his own spiritual experience with others, we need to remember that the life experience Peter references for himself includes every one of those spiritual mistakes and human flaws.
Grace in abundant supply
However, like Peter, while our life can be deeply flawed, messy, and a train wreck, here’s the GOOD NEWS… the grace, mercy, and peace that transformed Peter’s life is equally available to us. It’s available in an abundant supply… with no stoppage or shortage.
There is no person, no place, nor thing that can separate you from the mercy, grace, and peace of Jesus Christ.
This week, let’s deepen our experience with Jesus Christ by asking Him to deeply search every part of our life and intervene with His mercy, grace, and peace.
If this one met you where you are, Stronger Where You Were Broken sits right beside it. And Fix Your Eyes on Jesus picks up right where Peter’s walk on the water went wrong: keeping our focus on Him.
Pass on the Good News. Now that’s BombDiggity!
#FarmSunday #Devotional #2Peter #GraceAndPeace
Scripture quotation taken from THE MESSAGE, copyright © 1993, 2002, 2018 by Eugene H. Peterson. Used by permission of NavPress. All rights reserved. Represented by Tyndale House Publishers.
Written by
Lane and Jules Morris
Authors and University of Tennessee faculty writing from our farm in East Tennessee about gardening, the farm kitchen, faith and designing a flourishing life at any age. More about us
