Luke 22:61

New International Version

 The Lord turned and looked straight at Peter. Then Peter remembered the word the Lord had spoken to him: “Before the rooster crows today, you will disown me three times.”

 For Your Encouragement

Like a sword thrust through Peter’s heart was the Master’s look. The pain of disappointment and failure overwhelmed him as the eyes of the Lord caught his. Jesus’s look said it all, and Peter remembered the word of the Lord at the dinner table. “Before the rooster crows today, you will disown me three times” (Luke 22:71). The impetuous leader of the twelve Apostles broke down and ran out like a wounded deer escaping from a snare, with tears streaming down all over his face.

Has the word of God cut through your heart this way before? Have your eyes ever caught that of the Master after cowardly disappointing Him? How did it feel, and what did you do?

Failure does not take us from communion with the Lord. What matters to Him is our response to our failures. Peter’s denial of Jesus was nothing different from the betrayal of Judas Iscariot. Their reaction to their self-preserving and cowardly actions made the difference. The failure of one cut through his heart and led him to repentance, while the other only regretted the loss of a privileged place in the kingdom of Christ that he finally realized was a reality. Peter sorrowed because he had hurt his Lord, but Judas wept over the lost opportunity and eternal blessings that had been his as an apostle of the Lord.

Tears tell different stories. Some tears reveal a broken heart – a godly sorrow that leads to repentance. Others tell the tales of self-pity and remorse, which lead to destruction (2 Corinthians 7:10).

How, then, do you react to your failures in the mirror of God? What story do your tears tell?

Maybe as you read this message, the Spirit of God is reminding you of how careless you were with the word of God some time ago that has left you with a haunting regret. You do not have to walk around bearing the weight of your failure when grace awaits you at the foot of the cross (1 John 1:9). 

Can you go on your knees and ask the Lord to forgive and restore you as He did for Peter on the shores of the Sea of Tiberius (John 21:15-19)?

Shalom