Empty promises

"Lord', he told Him, 'I'm ready to go with You, both to prison and to death.' 'I tell you Peter, He said, 'the rooster will not crow today until you deny three times that you know Me."                                                                                   Luke 22:33  CSB

Jesus had been discussing His way forward, how he would suffer for the the sake of His Father's wishes. Peter, always the outspoken one, replied without giving his words any thought, saying that he was ready to go to prison and even die for Jesus. He was more or less saying, 'You can count on me Lord, I'll be there for You.'

We can also get into similar situations in our dealing with people, by making empty promises to show our support. How many times have you said something like this to someone who is going through a bad time. We can say things like this to, make them feel better and supported, and also to make us feel better too. However, we often regret what we have said because the situation may be an impossible one.

Peter's heart was right, this cannot be denied, our hearts can go out to him. He genuinely meant what he said, however, he missed what Jesus was really saying. Jesus told him that Satan had asked Jesus for permission to buffet Peter and sift him as wheat. But, Jesus had prayed for him. When Jesus' time was ready, all of the disciples would run away to save themselves. Peter, would deny Jesus and would be so broken by it all. Jesus foretold that, 'when' (note this is not and 'if') returned, Peter returned, he would bring them all back together again. 

Jesus often has an agenda totally different to ours and we need to be open to this. There was pride in Peter's confession to Jesus (Proverbs 16:18), and a learning curve was needed. When Peter had learned this, he would be a great leader, empowered by Jesus Himself John 21:15-19.

Be careful of making empty promises; Jesus must come first and, even though we want to please Him, we must do what he wants us to do, not what we think is best for Jesus. Do you get the point here? Peter in his faithfulness to Jesus, so wanted to please Him but, Jesus was more concerned about who would look after the other disciples when He had gone. Therefore, He began to prepare Peter for this task.

Peter had to learn the lesson of making empty promises and attempting to manipulate Jesus' plans. We must be open to what Jesus wants, not what we think is the best decision.! 

Copyright 2022 Grahame Howard.                                

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