Peter Wept

“But Peter said, ‘Man, I do not know what you are talking about.’ And immediately, while he was still speaking, a cock crowed. And the Lord turned and looked at Peter. And Peter remembered the word of the Lord, how He had told him, ‘Before a cock crows today, you will deny Me three times.’ And he went out and wept bitterly.” Luke 22:60-62

We seem to be not one, but a variety of selves with woefully little coordination among them. “That wasn’t like me at all,” we’ve sometimes said. “I’m not myself today,” we feel at times.

I think that Simon Peter must have felt this way that night. Standing in the flickering flare of a courtyard fire, a young girl had remembered that he was one of the Galilean’s close friends and had said so. And the frightened man, the uncertain man, the disillusioned man within him said, “Woman, I do not know him.” The “cockcrow” was what they called the third watch of the night. When Peter heard that sound, his heart sank.

Now the reality was that Simon had done no worse than any of the others who’d run away from this sad and scary scene. But he had made such promises: “Lord, I am ready to go with you to prison an to death.” V 33 And Jesus had tried to war him: “Simon, Simon, behold, Satan demanded to have you, that he might sift you like wheat.” V 31

This is to say, “Your loyalty is about to be tested, Simon. You’re about to discover how much of that certainty you claim is wheat and how much is chaff.Satan - the adversary - questions your credibility.”

So Simon was tested...and he flunked! And many times we are tested and fail just like Peter. Why are we tested you ask? Because God shows us our weakness, He exposes us so we can grow, He let’s us know what’s really on the inside, so we can learn to trust Him.

How does He test us? Tomorrow . . .