Do you ever get frustrated with yourself and wonder, “When am I ever going to really grow?” Have you ever made up your mind to be different in one area of your life only to stumble again and again in that very same thing? For a lot of folks, I think the hard thing is wondering whether or not this is just who they are. They feel stuck, or even doomed, like they will always be this person. In Matthew 16, when Jesus changed Simon’s name to Peter, He said, “On this rock I will build my church and the gates of Hades will not overcome it.” That must have been such a cool moment for Peter, hearing Jesus predict the change that would happen in his life. At the same time, we know that Peter stumbled again. Jesus may have given him a name like “Rock,” but Peter didn’t become a strong, immovable foundation over night. In fact, on the night Jesus was betrayed, Satan sifted Peter like wheat. In other words, the gates of hell overcame him. So what is going on here? I’ve heard people try to explain this away by saying Jesus was calling Peter a pebble and referring to Himself as “The Rock” He would build on, but when you dig deep into the text, Jesus uses the exact same Greek word for Peter and His building material. Not only that, but in 1 Peter, he calls us all ‘living stones’ that the church is being built with. I think what we’re seeing here is a man in process. Rock takes time to form. Jesus got Peter there in the end and He’s changing you too. Nothing will stop Him from making you new.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment