Take Heed if You Think You Stand

“Little children, yet a little while I am with you. You will seek me, and just as I said to the Jews, so now I also say to you, ‘Where I am going you cannot come.’.. Simon Peter said to him, ‘Lord, where are you going?’ Jesus answered him, ‘Where I am going you cannot follow me now, but you will follow afterward.’ Peter said to him, ‘Lord, why can I not follow you now? I will lay down my life for you.’ Jesus answered, ‘Will you lay down your life for me? Truly, truly, I say to you, the rooster will not crow till you have denied me three times.’” (John 13:33,36-38 ESV)

 

There is an old idiom which says something like, “Don’t put the cart before the horse.” The meaning has to do with doing things in the wrong order, something done contrary to the natural or normally effective sequence of events (source: Wikipedia). And that is what I thought of when I read Peter’s response to the Lord Jesus, when he declared to Jesus that he would lay down his life for him. Why was that in the wrong order? Peter took it for granted that he would have the correct response ahead of the situation.

 

And we can easily fall into that same trap if we are not careful. We might look at other people’s situations and think how differently we would have responded if that would have been us, when we have not walked where they have walked. And this is not excusing away deliberate and habitual sin on the part of anyone who professes the name of Jesus. It is just saying that, until we have walked in their shoes, i.e. until we have gone through something similar, we don’t really know what our response will be.

 

So, whatever might come our way, we cannot be 100% positive of how we will act and react until we are there, going through it. We can certainly pray that our faith will not fail, and that we will be given the right words to say, by the Lord, and that he will give us the strength we need to endure whatever we face so as to stand strong, and to not yield to the enemy. But what comes to mind here is, “Take heed if you think you stand lest you fall” (1 Corinthians 10:12 paraphrased). We must not be too sure of ourselves.

 

And that is where Peter failed. But not only was he too sure of himself and of what he would do, but he didn’t believe Jesus when the Lord warned him that, not only would he not lay his life down for the Lord, but he would deny the Lord three times. And how do I know that Peter didn’t believe Jesus? Because he did not heed the warning, and he did exactly as Jesus said he would. When Jesus was arrested, Peter denied him three times out of fear of what might happen to him if he associated himself with the Lord Jesus.

 

So, what can we learn from Peter’s lesson? We can learn to be humble, to be realistic in our self-evaluations, and to see ourselves as human beings, mere clay in the hands of the Potter, still capable of doing wrong. If we assume that we are always going to do what is right, and that we will never have an incorrect response, then we are setting ourselves up for failure. We have to be on guard all the time against the wiles of the devil, for he is going to “pull out all the stops” to try to defeat us. So we have to be armored up (Ephesians 6:10-20).

 

But on the flip side of that, if we always assume that we are going to fail, and so we don’t really put forth the effort to make certain that we are wearing our spiritual armor, and that we are listening to the Lord, and that we are actively walking in obedience to his ways, in his power, then we also set ourselves up for failure. For if we are going to live holy lives pleasing to the Lord, and not make sin our practice, we must have daily disciplines we go by and we must be followers of Christ who deliberately are doing his will.

 

And when the voice of the Holy Spirit speaks gently to our hearts and says, “Don’t go there!,” we need to not go there. We should not tempt fate, as the saying goes. We cannot play with sin, not even one little bit, for it won’t take much and we can be back on the wrong path. For every little compromise can lead to another and to another until the compromise has grown and it is much larger, and it has now taken over, and the Lord is now seated in the back seat instead of the one driving the vehicle. So take God seriously!!

 

Believe his warnings in the Scriptures! So many people professing faith in Jesus Christ today are being taught to ignore God’s warnings, as though they are irrelevant for the one who professes his name. But most of the warnings in the New Testament are given to the church, not to the world, and the warnings are against falling back into sin and thinking that they can dabble in sin, deliberately and habitually, and still have salvation from sin and eternal life with God. It “ain’t so!” Live to sin? Die in your sins.

 

But might we fail sometimes to be all who God wants us to be? We may. That is true (1 John 2:1-2). We are still works in progress whom God is molding into his likeness, if our faith is genuine, and if our lives are surrendered to the Lord to do his will. But God “draws a line in the sand,” so to speak. If sin is what we practice, deliberately and habitually, and obedience to our Lord is not what we practice, by his grace, then we are not in fellowship with the Lord, and we will not inherit eternal life with God.

 

[Matthew 7:13-14,21-23; Luke 9:23-26; John 1:12-13; John 6:44; John 10:27-30; Acts 26:18; Romans 2:6-8; Romans 6:1-23; Romans 8:1-14; Romans 12:1-2; 1 Corinthians 10:1-22; Galatians 5:16-21; Ephesians 2:8-10; Ephesians 4:17-32; Ephesians 5:3-6; Titus 2:11-14; Hebrews 3:1-19; Hebrews 4:1-13; 1 Peter 2:24; 1 John 1:5-10; 1 John 2:3-6; 1 John 3:4-10]

 

As the Deer

 

By Martin J. Nystrom

Based off Psalm 42:1

 

As the deer panteth for the water

 So my soul longeth after You

 You alone are my heart's desire

 And I long to worship You

 

You alone are my strength, my shield

 To You alone may my spirit yield

 You alone are my heart's desire

 And I long to worship You

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UZv3jzOTE70

 

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Take Heed if You Think You Stand

An Original Work / February 14, 2025

Christ’s Free Servant, Sue J Love