Thoughts for another day

Sept. 16, 2013.

Today's verse: Mt. 16:23. But he turned, and said unto Peter, Get thee behind me, Satan: thou art an offence unto me: for thou savourest not the things that be of God, but those that be of men. (KJV)

(Pls. read the above before you read further.  Thanks)

Anyone reading this Word will be a little startled at what Jesus tells Peter, who a few minutes earlier, had confessed that Jesus was the Christ, the Son of the Living God.  Jesus had said it was revealed to Peter by His Father in heaven and then Jesus even made Peter the foundation on which He would build His church granting him even further authority saying, ‘I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.’ 

It could easily confuse and rattle someone naïve in the ways of God, particularly if you’re thinking like Peter; and wondering, what wrong did Peter do?  You may ask yourself, why did Jesus have to be so harsh on Peter and call him satan?  After all, Peter had only expressed a ‘God forbid’ to that which Jesus had told would happen with Him.  And since Jesus for Peter was a Rabbi, a Teacher, a Friend and God, obviously Peter would not want any harm to befall Him isn’t it?  Don’t we also do the same with someone we love and respect?

To understand why Jesus says what He said, and we know that Jesus is always right, we must go into the unsaid and silent message that Jesus is giving: never try to frustrate the plans of God.  What God has ordained for anyone, it must happen.  The process has to be gone through because God has destined it and whatever God does, we must remember that God knows what He is doing and even if we don’t understand it and also means a lot of pain must be endured, we must, in faith, accept it for having trusted God we must realise that God meant it for our good and eventually, we will come out of it unscathed and victorious.  The essential thing is that we should never interfere with God’s work, no matter if it doesn’t sound sensible to us, but we must hand over the reins of our lives to Him and trust Him to do that which will, having purified us, make us shine like brilliant stars in God’s firmament.