RECEIVE THE WORD WITH JOY
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“But the ones on the rock are
those who, when they hear, receive the word with joy; and these have no root,
who believe for a while and in time of temptation fall away.”—Luke 8:14
Christian’s the world over celebrate the resurrection of
Jesus Christ on Easter Sunday. Because
of Christ’s resurrection, Christians have the assurance of life after dead
because they have received Him into their hearts. The events leading up to Christ’s dead,
burial and resurrection are important for us to understand and learn from. One such event began the night that Jesus was
betrayed.
After the disciples had their last supper with Jesus, and their
feet had been washed by Him Jesus revealed to them that one of the disciples
would betray Him. He told the disciples
that they would all leave Him, but Peter emphatically denied that he would ever
do such a thing. Jesus replied, “I tell you, Peter, the rooster shall not
crow this day before you will deny three times that you know Me” (Luke 22:34). Further reading of the Scriptures reveals to
us that Peter was tempted, and that he did deny Jesus three times before the
rooster crowed (Luke 22: 54 – 62).
We, as Christian’s, can identify with Peter on so many
levels. We go to our church meetings
where we get inspired, our faith gets charged up, and we are so happy that
things are going to be different in our lives because of the Word of God. But when we get home, we face the same
circumstances that were there before we left, and soon “fall away” from what
has inspired us.
The scriptures tell us that Peter wept bitterly after he
denied Christ. He must have felt like
such a failure, but Christ never called Peter a failure. In fact, Jesus had told Peter that Satan was
going to try to shake him like wheat, but that He had prayed that Peter’s faith
would not fail, and when he had returned to the Lord Peter was to strengthen
and establish the brethren (Luke 22: 31 – 32).
The book of Acts is full of what Peter did after returning to the
Lord. He preached the first sermon at
the Day of Pentecost and was the one that God used to reveal to the world that
everyone was included in God’s plan of redemption.
Determine in your heart today that when difficulties in your
life come, that you will stay faithful to the Lord by putting His Word first in
every circumstance. When you do, God
will strengthen your faith and your circumstances will change because you have
chosen to build your faith upon the rock of Jesus Christ.
Prayer—Father, I come
to you today asking for your forgiveness for the times that I have given up and
did not persevere in your Word. Lord, I
ask you to strengthen my faith that I may stand securely upon your Word, in
Jesus Name. Amen.
