READING: Numbers 34-36, Mark 14:17-42
I’m afraid that sometimes we talk a “big game,” but we do so without the life experiences that test us. It’s easy to tell people how to overcome grief until you’re the one doing the weeping. Saying to a jobless person, “You must just trust the Lord,” is easy unless you’re the one who loses a job. Telling others that we’ll die for Christ might be easy to do, but most of us have never had the noose around our own necks.
Peter was there once. He was certain he would die for Jesus: “Even if everyone falls away, I will not. . . If I have to die with you, I will never deny you” (Mark 14:29, 31). I’m convinced he meant those words; after all, he tried to defend Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane. When the heat was on him, though, as Jesus was arrested, Peter would not even admit to knowing Jesus. He did exactly what he said he would never do—fall away.
The “big game” we talk today can be disproven within hours when life unexpectedly changes. We show the depth of our faith not by our big words when all is well, but by our persevering trust when following Jesus costs us something.
PRAYER: “God, grant me faith to cling to You in difficult and frightening times.”
TOMORROW’S READING: Review and catch up day