Daily devotion – Peter’s example.
John 1:42 And he brought him to Jesus. Now when Jesus looked at him, He said, “You are Simon the son of Jonah. You shall be called Cephas” (which is translated, A Stone) Cephas is Aramaic for “rock”; the Greek form is Peter.
Peter the fisherman now had four names: Simeon, Simon, Cephas, and Peter. But the new name Jesus gave him signalled a new life, a new beginning in Peter. Just as when God changed Abram to Abraham, Sarai to Sarah, and Jacob to Israel.
But Peter was not a nickname; it was a prophecy: “You are…You will be.” Jesus was saying, “Peter you are made of the dust of the ground, but one day you will be a rock.” It takes considerable time and incredible heat and pressure to produce a solid rock, and it took nearly three years of friendship, prayer, failures and incredible ministry for Jesus to make Peter into a ‘pillar’ and a foundation stone of the ministry of the early Church.
We so often want to find nothing but fault with Peter, but we forget that everybody is in the process of becoming the man or woman God has intended us to be.
Peter, we know was impulsive at times, and occasionally inconsistent, but Jesus helped Peter run his race to the finish line! The Bible tells us of many people who accomplished impossible things just because they trusted the Lord and let Him have His way in their lives.
This week, you may feel like sand, but God is making you into something far more solid. Let Him have His way and let Him shape your life as He did Peters.