Do you love me?

“When they had finished eating, Jesus said to Simon Peter, “Simon son of John, do you truly love me more than these?” “Yes, Lord,” he said, “you know that I love you.” Jesus said, “Feed my lambs.”  Again Jesus said, “Simon son of John, do you truly love me?” He answered, “Yes, Lord, you know that I love you.” Jesus said, “Take care of my sheep.”  The third time he said to him, “Simon son of John, do you love me?” Peter was hurt because Jesus asked him the third time, “Do you love me?” He said, “Lord, you know all things; you know that I love you.” Jesus said, “Feed my sheep.”   John 21:15-17

Peter wasn’t your average kind of guy… or was he?  Let’s see…he had plenty of doubts – about everything.  He had run-ins with his co-workers and got rather annoyed when his boss tried to tell him how to do his job.  He didn’t meet the performance goals he set, over-promising and under-delivering.  He flew off the handle, had a brush with the law, and nearly got arrested for assault.  He was moody and fickle, and had a hard time saying “I’m sorry.”  And after his feelings were hurt, he had a hard time saying “I love you.”

Gee, Peter sounds a bit like someone I know.  Someone like…..me.

And what is more astonishing, is that despite all of those bad attitudes and poor choices, Jesus still loved Peter, and wanted Peter to love him back.

Words, the “I love you” words, are sometimes very hard to speak.  When you were a kid, did you ever get a talking-to by a parent, and then they dared to ask if you still loved them?  If you were like me, maybe you looked away, or down at your feet while your toe traced a line in the nap of the carpet.  Maybe your first response to them “yeah…whatever….” or something like that.  But when you were finally worn down, and admitted to loving them back, everything changed.  Didn’t it?  And so it was with Peter.

To refresh your memory, Peter denied Jesus three times when Jesus was crucified.  Peter messed up, and in a big way, but Jesus knew that would happen.  So after Jesus rose from the dead, He went back to be with his disciples, and there was Peter.  Peter’s encounter with Jesus was transforming in so many ways.  Not only did Jesus specifically want to address their relationship, in a general way, but Jesus wanted to know that Peter’s heart was genuinely changed, and that Peter was in a position to carry on with Jesus’ work on earth by feeding “his sheep”.  Jesus asked Peter….”Do you truly love me?”  That meant with everything you have and all of your being, not just in a friendly way.  And Peter’s response was a sort of “yeah…you know…” kind of moment.  I can almost picture Peter looking down at his feet, and drawing that line on the floor with his toe.  So Jesus asked him again, and got the same kind of answer.  But that third time…the press that Jesus applied to Peter’s heart, finally got a heart response.  Jesus asked Peter, basically, that if you don’t “truly” love me, do you at least love me like a friend?  Peter was annoyed with Jesus when he pressed for a better answer.  But it was that hard, persistent pressing that got Peter to give Jesus a real, honest response.  Peter finally admitted that he knew in his heart that Jesus knows all things, and that Jesus knew that Peter loved him.  And that’s exactly what Jesus wanted to hear – an acknowledgement that Peter totally messed up, but that despite those mess-ups that Jesus KNEW that Peter still loved him.

When Jesus heard that honest, brash response, Jesus knew that Peter was really ready to love him back.  Peter was also ready to have his ministry restored.  Peter was a changed man, and Jesus knew it.

Are you a changed person?  Are you ready for restoration?  Can you say those words when Jesus calls?  Do you love him?

Lord, thank you for being so willing to press us.  Thank you for loving us when we don’t even know how to love you back.  Thank you for your willingness to restore our lives, even if we don’t deserve it.  We need you, and know in our hearts that we need you.  Lord, we ask for your love and presence when we search our hearts, and bring us to want to come clean with you.  Bless us, even when we don’t deserve it, and let us know that you love us as we walk through life and the challenges we face.  As Peter said, we know that you know all things, including our hearts.  We ask you to hold us up, and keep us strong, when the world is hard and we are pressed by it.  But we want YOUR pressing and deliverance.  Thank you for giving so much for us.  In Jesus’ name we pray.  Amen.

Copyright ConnieD. 2012.  All rights reserved.

A joyful morning

“I will exalt you, O LORD, for you lifted me out of the depths and did not let my enemies gloat over me.  O LORD my God, I called to you for help and you healed me.  O LORD, you brought me up from the grave; you spared me from going down into the pit.  Sing to the LORD, you saints of his; praise his holy name.  For his anger lasts only a moment, but his favor lasts a lifetime; weeping may remain for a night, but rejoicing comes in the morning.”  Psalm 30:1-5

David was a sinful man, and he knew that.  He recognized the seriousness of trials he’d been through, including the trials that he himself created, and he knew in the depths of his heart that it was God himself that delivered him from the very lowest places he ever experienced.  He also recognized that God saved him from even lower places.  I’m certainly no David, but I know that I’m a sinful woman, and I am so very in touch with my own trials.  And I know that it was God that saved me, and spared me, and it is Him that praise.

The Bible tells us that David wrote this psalm for the “dedication of the temple” and although Psalm 30 isn’t considered a Messianic psalm, officially, I can’t help but think of that first, joyful Easter morning when I read David’s words.  Here David is praising God for bringing him “up from the grave” and sparing him from “going down into the pit”.  Isn’t that exactly why Jesus went to the cross?  Isn’t that exactly what Jesus did for all of us that Easter?  HE rose from the grave, so that we could also rise.  HE went down into the pit, so that we would never have to.  Jesus IS the temple that was rebuilt that first Easter morning, so what better way to recognize that fact than to remember the words of David in his dedication of the temple.  Today we remember and celebrate the dedication of the Temple – Jesus himself.

Are you feeling as though you are experiencing God’s anger these days?  Some days I cry out to God, asking what I’ve done wrong – what I’ve done to deserve my trials – you know, “why is this happening to me?”  I lose sight of the goodness of God, and the great eternal salvation that He has already given me.  I’m selfish, foolish and lacking in faith – so very human, and so very fallen.  Do I weep?  Oh yes – and not so delicately either.  But I read David’s words, and God’s promises, and HE tells me that rejoicing comes in the morning.  So I hang on.

Let me reassure you.  Rejoicing does come in the morning!  And this Easter morning, let us all rejoice together!  He is risen!  He is risen indeed!

Lord, thank you for giving me the promises of eternal life.  Thank you for the loving, selfless sacrifice of Christ.  Thank you for knowing, from the foundation of the world, how desperately we need you, and for providing a new life for us.  Thank you for walking with us through our trials – even when we’re the ones who put us there, and for your unending love that saves us from the pit.  Thank you for the promise of the night ending, and the joy of the morning.  Bless me today, Lord, and warm me in the light of your love, and hear my songs of joy and praise that I sing for you.  Help me to cast off the grave, and to rejoice in the morning.  In Jesus’ name I pray.  Amen.

Copyright ConnieD.  2012.  All rights reserved.