Today’s scripture: Matthew 26:30-35 (NRSV) (KJV) (The Message) What might God be saying to me?
My thoughts (Robert Ferguson):
In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters. In the beginning there was absolutely nothing. Genesis 1:1-2
It is hard to imagine what this existence or this space we refer to as reality was like before God. Perhaps that is because there is no pre-God. It’s a weighty subject and I don’t mean to bog you down so early in the day, but this passage got me to thinking and chewing on some good stuff!
Without God we are nothing. At times, like the disciples, we become so full of confidence and pride that we believe we are capable of doing everything on our own, without the Lord. We, just as Jesus’ disciples were, are weak and susceptible to sin. In our text today Jesus sends a clear warning to the disciples, “You’re not only going to deny Me, you’re going to deny Me quickly. I’m going to warn you about this. You’re going to deny it, and then you’re going to turn right around and do it in a matter of an hour or so.” But instead of heeding the Lords warning and trading in pride for humility they protested. “Even if I had to die with you, I would never deny you,” Peter said. However, in just a few more verses we will witness Peter displaying bad faith.
Bad faith is a philosophical concept that suggests that even though we are free to make choices and decisions we commonly will deny ourselves that freedom in favor of being who the world tells us we are or who we want the world to believe we are. Peter and the other disciples seem to have believed that because of their position in the Lord’s inner circle, they were incapable of denying the Christ. But Jesus knows that though these men were loyal, they were, at the end of the day, only human. In a tough situation, facing an angry mob capable of anything, circumstances would dictate Peter’s reaction — not his belief and faith in the Christ. Did Peter forget that he was free? Had the disciples fully understood that Christ was laying down his life for their freedom perhaps they would have reacted differently. But they missed it and human fear caused Peter to deny the Christ. Would you or I have made a different decision?
When we finally make a decision to accept Christ as our Savior, we must humble ourselves and say “Lord, I can’t save myself, I need you. I am nothing without You Lord.” But so often after we have been saved by God’s grace, we tend to say, “Ok thanks for saving me, I can take it from here.”
As it was in the beginning, when God creates something, it is always out of nothing. Absolutely nothing. We must become empty and nothing, devoid of our fears, pride, and self professed stations in life. The disciples were secure and confident in themselves when they should have been secure only in the confidence of the grace of the Lord. We must be sure today that our confidence is the true confidence, that we have not put our confidence in the flesh, but that our confidence is in the Lord Jesus Christ alone. I am nothing apart from God. I have nothing to offer God. All that I have, all that I do, is from The Creator .
Prayer for the day: God, humble us. Bring us back to nothing, so You can create in us all that You want us to be. Humble us Lord, in Jesus’ name, Amen.
We encourage you to include a time of prayer with this reading. If you need a place to get started, consider the guidelines on the How to Pray page.