Your Daily Devotional for March 28, 2006

March 28, 2006

 

There is Always Victory in the Lord

by Pastor Paul Chappell

 

“And he cometh, and findeth them sleeping, and saith unto Peter, Simon, sleepest thou? couldest not thou watch one hour?”

Mark 14:37-38

 

As we talk about Victory in Jesus, the very term victory captures our attention. We live in a success oriented society. Everybody loves a winner and everybody wants to be on the side of victory. It is often forgotten that the path of ultimate victory may include a few interruptions and failures along the way. The Christian who remembers that failure is not final is wise.

 

One man who could testify that he had to experience failure before he could know real victory and blessing was the apostle Peter. Peter’s failure finally brought him to the place where he could experience victory in the Lord Jesus Christ.

 

Peter’s spiritual regression began with the spirit of pride in his life. If you will recall in Matthew 26:31-33, Jesus said to His disciples that all shall be offended because of Him but Peter proudly “answered and said unto him, Though all men shall be offended because of thee, yet will I never be offended.” Peter developed a pious attitude. He thought he could stand with his own charisma. He thought he could make it with his own vim and vigor. Peter said, “When everyone else fails I’ll be faithful, standing here right next to You!”

 

We see that Peter’s pride and presumptuous spirit led to his prayerlessness. When Jesus sweat as it were great drops of blood in the garden, He prayed, “Abba, Father, all things are possible unto thee; take away this cup from me: nevertheless not what I will, but what thou wilt.” (Mark 14:36) After just one hour of prayer He came down “and findeth them sleeping, and saith unto Peter, Simon, sleepest thou? couldest not thou watch one hour?” (Mark 14:37) As Jesus prayed, Peter slept. Similarly, pride causes many Christians to feel like they don’t need to pray. Prayer involves humbling ourselves before God and confessing our need for Him--a difficult task for the proud Christian.

 

This regression of Peter’s spiritual life went from pride to presumptuous, to prayerlessness. The final step for Peter was at the fires of the world where he denied his Lord. We thank the Lord though that the story does not end here.

 

Although Peter had failed, he would find true victory through a heart of repentance towards the Lord Jesus Christ. The Bible says in the last part of Mark 14:72, “...and when he thought thereon, he wept.”

 

Like Peter, pride can come into the life of a Christian unknowingly and cause him to follow the Lord afar off. This is when we need to repent unto the Lord and turn to Him to restore our fellowship. “For godly sorrow worketh repentance to salvation not to be repented of: but the sorrow of the world worketh death.” (II Corinthians 7:10) Until someone senses godly sorrow for whatever stage of regression they might be in, there can be no restoration and victory in their life.

 

Peter, who just days before seemed to have every reason to give up and to declare his own failure, would soon stand and deliver one of the greatest messages ever preached on the day of Pentecost. Three thousand souls accept Christ and are baptized on this day. Why? – Because a failure named Peter humbled himself and returned to the Lord with a heart of repentance and enabled God to use him. Failure is not final. There is always victory in the Lord Jesus Christ.

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