Matthew 26:74-75
“Then he began to curse and swear, saying, ‘I do not know the Man!’ Immediately a rooster crowed. And Peter remembered the word of Jesus who had said to him, ‘Before the rooster crows, you will deny Me three times.’ So he went out and wept bitterly.”
It’s a pitiful thing to willfully deny the one you love, but it’s the greatest agony to have to deny your Master and Redeemer. There are times in life when we have fallen into some sort of sinful behavior that crushes our spirits, leaving us totally devastated because we knew that we had totally failed God. These times are excruciatingly painful because usually, the Lord would have warned us ahead of time about it but we may have not taken His warning seriously.
This was what happened to Peter. The Lord had warned Him and urged him to be prayerful against the coming trials, but he had taken it with levity. He felt it could never happen to him, so he slept when he should have been groaning in prayers. To avoid the heartbreak that comes from denying Christ, we must take the warnings of Jesus seriously and we must prepare ahead for the evil day. The day of testing is coming and we do not have to yield to Satan if we stay watchful and prayerful. Peter wept bitterly because he knew that his failure could have been avoided. May we prepare adequately before the day of agony and weeping comes upon us.
“Lord Jesus, I will take all Your warnings very seriously. Deliver me from the flippant self-confidence that may expose me to evil. I have betrayed You before. Oh Jesus, may I never experience again, the sore agony of betraying You. Amen.”
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