Lovest Thou Me?
John 21:14-16
We live in a society where everything is fast and instant. Anything our minds can imagine can be and is brought to reality. We have lost the art of patience, waiting, and endurance. If things do not change quickly, if something doesn’t happen real fast, then we will toss it aside. We will kick it to the curb. We will lose heart and declare that it was never meant to be. This same mentality has crept in the church. We want instant gratification, instant justification, instant adjudication and even instant salvation. If it does not appear to us that God is moving a thing in the direction that we desire, we will throw our hands in the air in an instant moment and tell everyone how we must have “missed God”. We saved folk act like God won’t allow us to go through some hardships and disappointments.
We act like the Lord is never supposed to faith-test us. How is God ever going to know that we mean what we say if He does not try our confession? When Jesus asked Peter how much he loved him it was a test of faith. Love is Faith. We say that we love God and if do not have faith then where in does our love lie? So Jesus wanted to put Peter’s profession of love to the test. Jesus asked Peter three times if he loved him and with each answer Peter declared his love for the Savior. You ever asked yourself why Jesus asked him three times? I mean, what is the significance in asking the same question, the same way, three times?! Well, if you recall, when Peter denied Jesus while He was on His way to be persecuted by the Roman soldiers, Jesus had forewarned Peter that he would deny him three times before the cock would crow. <Mark 14:30> I believe that Jesus wanted Peter to be as sure of his present devotion as he was of his past denial so he covered the three times Peter denied Him with a three time reinstatement of love.
When I think back to the times that I have declared my love to God it is almost sickening. The times I told Him He could trust me with His anointing. Begged Him for more of His power. Promised Him that it would not happen again. All of that to simply back out of the deal to do my own thing. I have had more cocks crowing in my life than Peter could have ever heard! Not only have I had cocks crowing, but dogs barking and some cows mooing, too! Still, when God calls you...He calls you. There is nothing you or anybody else can do about it. The gifts and calling of God are without repentance < Romans 11:29> This scripture does not mean that we do not have to repent because we are called. Man is still sinful. Regardless of how or even how much God uses us we are still filthy vessels used of the Father. The need to not repent is on the Lord’s end. God himself does not ever need to repent for calling any one of us regardless of what we do or do not do for Him. He does not need to repent because all that we are to the Lord is by His infallible covenant written in blood, written in love.
All God ever wants from his creation is to be loved beyond fear, beyond doubt, beyond what we see, beyond what the enemy does, and most of all beyond that which we think ourselves to be capable. The Lord's love is so all consuming and so unconditional until He won't even allow us to understand it, comprehend it, or stop it. He just wants it reciprocated. . Lovest thou me more than what I provide for you? Lovest thou me more than the husband you desire to have? Lovest thou me more than the wife you seek for? Lovest thou me more than the salary from your job? Lovest thou me more than the satisfying of your flesh? Then PROVE it!! When Jesus told Peter to prove that he loved Him by feeding his lambs and sheep, He was not speaking literally of animals. What Jesus was instructing Peter to do was to take the revelation that the Father had given him as to who Jesus was that day when he asked the disciples, “Who do men say I am?”, and impart it unto the nations as a testimony unto His life and name.< Mark 8:27>Will you give up all else for the sake of the call? Can you show God your love by the life that you give instead of the one you live?
Lord, I give my whole life to you
All that I have been through
Use it for your glory
Tell it for my story
-Mia