“When a strong man, fully armed, guards his own house, his possessions are safe. But when someone stronger attacks and overpowers him, he takes away the armor in which the man trusted and divides up the spoils.” Luke 11:21-22

Why did Peter deny Jesus? He confidently declared “Even if I have to die with you, I will never disown you.” (Matthew 26:35) But only a few short hours later, Peter did the exact opposite. He denied he knew Jesus three times, just as Jesus predicted. We don’t have to imagine Peter’s sorrow. We’re told plainly that afterwards “he went outside and wept bitterly.” (Matthew 26:75)

But this doesn’t answer the question of why Peter denied knowing Him. Part of it was fear: Fear of losing his reputation by being associated with a man accused of being a criminal. Fear of his responsibilities. Fear, perhaps, for his own life. But another reason that Peter ended up denying knowing His Lord is because he was away from Him.

Peter lost sight of his Lord. It wasn’t until “The Lord turned and looked straight at Peter” (Luke 22:61) that Peter came back to his senses and realized what he had done. After losing sight of Jesus, Peter had been trying to do things on his own strength. Rather than trusting God, he was trusting in himself.

“Trust in the LORD with all your heart
and lean not on your own understanding;
in all your ways acknowledge him,
and he will make your paths straight.” Proverbs 3:5-6

Peter himself explains the imminent danger of trying to do everything ourselves God: “Be self-controlled and alert. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour.” (1 Peter 5:8) The apostle James advises us: “Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Come near to God and he will come near to you.” (James 4:7-8) While even the strongest of men & women are no match for Satan’s temptations on our own, with God we have nothing to fear.

We can stay near to God by reading His Word, by speaking and listening to Him in prayer, and by living in community with His sons and daughters. Stay near to God, and you will never be overwhelmed.

“So do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.” Isaiah 41:10

Question: What is the danger of not staying near God? How does staying near God protect us from danger?

Are you struggling in your marriage? There is hope!

One of the rulers of the synagogue whose name was Jairus fell at the feet of Jesus and said, “Please come to my daughter who is dying. Come and lay your hands on her so that she will be healed and live” (Luke 8:40-56; Mark 5:35-43, NIV).

The twelve year old girl was not able to come to Jesus, she was too sick. So her father went on her behalf. He brought Jesus to her.

When Jesus, Peter, John and James neared the house, there was loud weeping and wailing. The little girl had died. The situation looked hopeless to all but Jesus. He walked up to the girl’s bed, grasped her hand and said, “Little girl, I say to you, get up.” Instantly her spirit returned and she stood up and walked around. Then Jesus told her parents to give her something to eat.

Some of our children and friends are like that little girl. They cannot come to Jesus on their own. Maybe they are too hurt, too mired in false doctrine and unbelief. They are spiritually dead.

That’s where our prayers come in–we can bring Jesus to them. He understands the problem completely and he’s the one who can help them. He can open blind eyes and deaf ears. He can cause the spiritually dead to come to new life. “With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible” (Matthew 19:26, NIV).

So, let’s keep praying for them. Let’s keep bringing Jesus to them.

Dear Jesus, I pray that you will come to …………………….  (include name) in a very personal and profound way so that he/she will know that you are real and that you care. May they come to new life in Christ.  Amen.

Questions: Has there been a situation in your life where you were too weak to go to God on your own but someone went for you and God heard that prayer? Can you tell us about it? What lesson can we learn from Jairus?

Do you feel overwhelming stress, fear or anxiety? We are here.

Have you ever wondered about that rooster that crowed right after Peter denied his Lord?  How did it happen that the rooster crowed just then?  Why didn’t he crow sooner?  Or why not later?  Why was it immediately after Peter had denied Christ three times?

Our immediate reaction to these questions might be to answer: “For one thing, Christ predicted that would happen.  For another, by the cock crowing just at that particular time, Peter realized the awful sin he had committed and went out and wept bitterly in repentance.”

We know the Lord loved Peter.  We know also that He dearly loves each one of His followers. Thus Christians can be assured that if He had a rooster crow at the right time for Peter, then He is ready to alert us when we stray off the path of righteousness!

Could it be that our downward path toward disobedience and sin starts in the same way as Peter’s?  When Jesus predicted that His disciples would desert Him, Peter declared, “Even if all fall away on account of you, I never will” (Matthew 26:33)!

Oh, how sure we get of ourselves sometimes!  We get so sure that we find ourselves relying on our own instead of the Lord’s strength.  The longer and stronger we go with the Lord, the more prone we seem to do this, for we may become proud of our own Christian strength!

Then we go to sleep, as Peter did in the Garden of Gethsemane.  “Could you men not keep watch with me for one hour?” Jesus asked Peter (Matthew 26:40).  We may get so wrapped up in our ritual of “serving the church” that we go to sleep; we lose our vision for winning lost souls to Christ.  We are in a nice, restful rut.  We tell the Lord we would never deny Him, but we fall asleep when He needs us most.

Ah, but we still have some spurts of zeal!  See, as the soldiers come to arrest Jesus, Peter leaps up with his sword and lops off an ear!  On the surface, this looks pretty brave, but if we look closely we find that Peter had not stopped to pray about it, even when he had been told by Jesus what would happen.  In the flesh, Peter lopped off an ear; in the Spirit Jesus restored it (Luke 22:51).  Sometimes in our spurts of zeal for the Lord our efforts might drive lost souls further from Him.  How careful we must be in all His work to be led by His Spirit!

Now Peter’s faith was low.  His Lord had been arrested and led away for trial.  In the darkest hour before dawn, temptation struck and Peter fell.  He cursed and lied, but worst of all, he denied three times the Son of God, Jesus Christ.  Similarly, temptation strikes us at the darkest hour when we are totally unprepared..  After we have relied upon ourselves, gone to sleep, worked in the flesh, then temptation strikes!  And like Peter, we may fall.

Then God has a rooster crow for us.  It may be a sermon, a devotional message, a Bible lesson.  Or a difficult circumstance may cause us to awaken from our sleep.  When God confronts us and we realize how we have sinned against Him, then like Peter, let us repent with tears of sorrow.  Then forgiven, we can lift up our heads, and living in the Spirit we can go forth to make our lives count for Him in His power.

Father God, I do work hard, often with zeal of my own, neglecting to spend time in prayer listening to Your still small voice of guidance. Thank you that You keep my heart on course by the nudging of Your Holy Spirit to reveal the sin in my life. Help me to respond quickly and willingly and allow You to fill me with fresh joy and zeal that comes from You. In Jesus’ name I pray, amen.

Questions: Tell us of a situation where you served the Lord with much zeal but forgot to pray about it. Why do we need to pray and listen to what the Lord tells us?

Then Jesus returned to his disciples and found them sleeping. “Simon,” He said to Peter, “are you asleep? Could you not keep watch for one hour? Watch and pray so that you will not fall into temptation” (Mark 14:32-42).

Jesus must have felt desperately lonely and in need of loyal friends, the night he led his eleven disciples into the Garden of Gethsemane. He separated Peter, James and John apart from the rest, and took them a little deeper into the garden. “My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death,” He said to them. “Stay here and keep watch.”

Then he went a short distance further, fell to the ground, and prayed, “Father take this cup from me. Yet not what I will, but what you will” (Mark 14:36).  When He returned to his three trusted disciples He found them asleep. Can you detect the note of disappointment in His voice as He said, “Simon, are you asleep? Could you not keep watch for one hour?”

This scene repeated itself three times. In his most desperate hour, Jesus was alone. Even His most devoted disciples and best friends could not share His time of anguish with him.

In our lives, also, there will be times when human friends will disappoint us. If we’ve been looking to them to meet our needs, we’ll be bitterly disappointed. But that is just the point. We are to look to God to meet our needs Who will never fail us. Jesus was not left without comfort. “An angel from heaven appeared to Jesus and strengthened him” (Luke 22:43).

Despite Peter’s failure to support Jesus during His darkest hour, Jesus expressed His love for him. “I know how it is: ‘the spirit is willing, but the body is weak’”, He said to Peter (Mark 14:38).

Jesus loved even the people who disappointed Him. He loves real people, not ideal people. And I’m very glad about this.

Dear God, I want to love as Jesus loves. He loves us with all our imperfections. Help me to love my friends like He does. Amen

Questions: What are some ways we can show people that we love them? How have others demonstrated Christ’s love to you in time of need?

About the Author Helen Grace Lescheid

Are you feeling ready to walk away from a relationship – are you possibly even considering divorce? We want to pray for you.

Peter was an excellent fisherman. He’d been at his profession for a very long time. After all, he made his living that way. One morning, after a long night of fishing and catching nothing, he was ready to hang up the nets and go home for a good sleep. But Jesus had other plans, “Put out into the deep water, and let down the nets for a catch,” He told  Peter.

“Master, we’ve worked hard all night and haven’t caught anything,” Peter said. “But because you say so, I will let down the nets” (Luke 5:4, 5).  Peter could have argued, “I’m the fisherman around here. You do the preaching and I’ll do the fishing, okay.”  But he surrendered his pride and his tiredness to Jesus.

“Because you say so, I will let down the nets,” he said. The end result? “They caught such a large number of fish that their nets began to break. So they signaled their partners in another boat to come and help them, and they came and filled both boats so full that they began to sink” (Luke 5:6, 7).

Sometimes what God wants us to do doesn’t make sense. It doesn’t seem to be the right timing or the right thing to do.  Still, if God is speaking to us, we don’t need to understand, obedience is what counts.

One note of caution: Make sure it’s God’ voice you are hearing. How can you tell? God will never tell you something that goes contrary to His character or His word.

Dear God, I want to listen well and to obey promptly. Amen

Questions: How can you tell if you are hearing God’s voice?  How do you respond if what God is asking you to do is inconvenient?

About the Author Helen Grace Lescheid

Missing the mark of being a perfect mom?  Discover how you can be yourself by taking this free online course

Join us for our Daily Devotional Chat today in our Women’s Chatroom at 10:30 am EDT.

“We do not dare to classify or compare ourselves with some who commend themselves. When they measure themselves by themselves and compare themselves with themselves, they are not wise” (2 Corinthians 10:12).

One of the quickest ways for me to lose my joy and my focus is to compare my life with the lives of others. I’m content with my life – until I look across the fence and see what my neighbor has! I’m not just talking about physical blessings here, but the niggling feeling that someone is having more success than I am. Can you relate?

In 2 Corinthians 10:12 Paul tells us that those who compare themselves to others are not wise. I’m reminded of what the risen Lord Jesus Christ told Peter as they sat by a camp fire on the shore of the Sea of Galilee. Jesus had just restored Peter to fellowship and told him what his life’s work would be.

Peter turned and, looking at another disciple, he asked. “Lord, what about him?”

Jesus answered, “What is that to you? You must follow me” (John 21:21, 22).

Like Peter, we tend to compare our lives to others. God is blessing her more than me, we think. Soon another thought follows.  God isn’t fair. I’m working just as hard as she is, then why isn’t He blessing me like that?

When we compare ourselves to others, we are doubting God’s goodness. Comparisons shift our focus away from God onto our circumstances, spawning thoughts of discontent.

“Keep your eyes on me,” Jesus told Peter. “Why compare yourself with him? I have a good plan for each of you.” The same is true for us. We need to keep our eyes on Jesus and be faithful to what He has asked us to do.

When I am tempted to compare myself with others, I remind myself that God loves me! His plan is tailor-made for me. Knowing this makes it easier for me to see my own blessings. I focus on what I have, not on what I don’t have. And I trust my loving God with the rest.

Thank you, Father, that you have a beautiful plan for each of your children. I want to keep my eyes on Jesus and be faithful in doing what He has asked me to do.  Amen.

Questions: Do you compare yourself with others? What can be the result of comparing yourself to others? What can we do instead when we are tempted to compare ourselves with others?

About the Author Helen Grace Lescheid

Has your world shattered and left you with no hope for your marriage? Talk to us.

The twelve year old girl was not able to come to Jesus, she was too sick. So her father went on her behalf. He brought Jesus to her.

When Jesus, Peter, John and James neared the house, there was loud weeping and wailing. The little girl had died. The situation looked hopeless to all but Jesus. He walked up to the girl’s bed, grasped her hand and said, “Little girl, I say to you, get up.” Instantly her spirit returned and she stood up and walked around. Then Jesus told her parents to give her something to eat.

Some of our children and friends are like that little girl. They cannot come to Jesus on their own. Maybe they are too hurt, too mired in false doctrine and unbelief. They are spiritually dead.

That’s where our prayers come in–we can bring Jesus to them. He understands the problem completely and he’s the one who can help them. He can open blind eyes and deaf ears. He can cause the spiritually dead to come to new life. “With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible” (Matthew 19:26, NIV).

So, let’s keep praying for them. Let’s keep bringing Jesus to them.

Dear Jesus, I pray that you will come to …………………….  (include name) in a very personal and profound way so that he/she will know that you are real and that you care. May they come to new life in Christ.  Amen.

Questions: Has there been a situation in your life where you were too weak to go to God on your own but someone went for you and God heard that prayer? Can you tell us about it? What lesson can we learn from Jairus?

About the Author Helen Grace Lescheid

It was the night of the Passover.  All four gospels tell the story. Matthew, Mark, Luke and John each include different details from the evening: about the room they found, just as Jesus had specified, how Jesus washed the disciples’ feet, the shared bread and wine, an argument that arose.  But they all record Jesus saying that one of them would betray him. (Matthew 26:21, Mark 14:18, Luke 22:21, John 13:21)

His words stunned them. “His disciples stared at one another at a loss to know which of them he meant.” (John 13:22, NIV) It was beyond comprehension.  They had given three years of their lives to him. “They began to question among themselves which of them it might be who would do this.” (Luke 22:23, NIV)

Was it silent for a while? Was there quiet whispering around the table? How long did it take for it to sink into their minds? As each one considered Jesus’ words, did he realize that he might be the one? That any one of them was capable of the deed?

“They were very sad and began to say to him one after the other, ‘Surely not I, Lord?’” (Matthew 26:22, NIV)

John called himself the one Jesus’ loved. Peter later boasted that even if everyone else deserted Jesus he wouldn’t. Matthew had given up a lucrative job in tax collection to follow Jesus.  Andrew brought his brother to Jesus.   Each one asked, it couldn’t be me, could it?

And each one of us knows that sad moment deep in our soul. “Surely, not I, Lord?” Any of us could have betrayed Jesus. We all have, in one way or another.

That is precisely why Jesus died – because we all sin.  After Jesus’ resurrection, eleven of those disciples found forgiveness and were transformed. So can we.

Holy God, You know my heart – the evil I’ve done and the wrongs I’m capable of doing. Forgive me; cleanse me by Your blood; transform me by the power of Your Spirit. Amen.

Question: How has God been encouraging you lately in your spiritual journey?

About the Author:  Suzanne Benner

Please open your Bible and read John 21:15-19.

Imagine Peter’s distress when Jesus told him, “Peter – this very night, before the rooster crows, you will deny three times that you even know Me!”

“No!” Peter insisted. “Even if I have to die with you, I will never deny you!” (Matthew 26:34-35). However, God does not lie, and Peter eventually fled with the rest of the disciples (Matthew 26:56). A short time later, as Jesus’ accusers spit in His face and hit Him with their fists, Peter proceeded to deny Jesus three separate times, even swearing by God’s name that he didn’t know Jesus (Matthew 26:69-74). Peter was not only lying, but by taking an oath he was essentially saying, “May God strike me dead if I am lying!” (Jesus spoke strongly against oaths in Matthew 5:33-37.)

If this were how the story ended, it would be a tragic tale of defeat. However, we know from the Book of Acts that Peter did indeed later become a leader of the church. Somehow Peter’s defeat was redeemed!

After hearing the rooster crow, Peter remembered Jesus’ words, and “went away, crying bitterly” (Matthew 26:75). Peter was anguished by his denial; at that point he didn’t have a clear idea that Jesus would be resurrected. When later Jesus appeared after His resurrection, Jesus asked Peter three times if he loved Him; three times Peter had denied, and three times Peter reaffirmed his faith. Jesus accepted Peter, and called him to again follow Him: “Jesus told him, ‘Follow me’” (John 21:15-19).

The lyrics for Third Day’s song “Can’t Take the Pain” creatively delve into how Peter might have felt during the ordeal:

“No, I didn’t see this one coming
It suddenly snuck up on me
I can’t say you didn’t tell me so
I can’t say you didn’t warn me
I can’t take the pain of knowing that I left you
I can’t bear the shame of knowing I was wrong
But I’ll take the blame for everything that I’ve done
I can’t take the pain of leaving you alone
Of leaving you alone

“I was there when they accused you
but I guess I was too afraid
Not just once and not just twice
But three times I denied your name
I never thought I’d get even a second chance
But you’ve given that and so much more
And then for every time I ever did deny
You ask me if I love you,
You know I do, Lord

“So I’m off to follow in your steps
it won’t be easy, it’s safe to say
There are only two roads I can walk on down
The road less traveled is the one you paved

“Lord, You took the pain even though I left You
And You took the shame and You made it all Your own
Why’d you take the blame for everything that I’ve done?
“Lord, You took the pain You and You alone,
You and You alone.”

God is love, and no matter what, God always welcomes back anyone who honestly repents. Regardless of how many times we fail, God will always call us back to follow Him again. “If we claim we have no sin, we are only fooling ourselves and not living in the truth. But if we confess our sins to him, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all wickedness” (1 John 1:8-9).

Question: Why do you think Peter denied Christ so vehemently? What defeats has God redeemed in your life?

About the Author: Darren Hewer

Updated to modern English by Darren Hewer, 2009.

“Immediately the rooster crowed the second time. Then Peter remembered the word Jesus had spoken to him: “Before the rooster crows twice you will disown me three times.” And he broke down and wept” (Mark 14:72).

As long as Peter lived, a fountain of tears began to flow whenever he remembered how he denied his Lord. It is not unlikely that it was so, for his sin was very great, and grace granted to him afterwards was even greater.

This same experience is common to all of God’s children; according to the degree the Holy Spirit has removed your natural heart of stone. We, like Peter, remember our boastful promises: “Even if everyone else deserts you, I will never desert you.” (Matthew 26:33, NLT). We eat our own words with the bitter herbs of repentance. When we think of how we promised we would act, and how often in, overt or subtle ways, we have denied our Lord, we may weep whole showers of grief.

Peter must have contemplated, at length, his denial of his Lord. The place in which he did it, the reasons that led him into such heinous sin, the lies and blasphemies he uttered, and the dreadful hardness of heart which drove him to do so again and yet again. How can we, when we are reminded of our misdeeds, and their exceeding sinfulness, remain indifferent and stubborn? Shouldn’t we repent of our sin, and cry to the Lord for renewed assurances of His pardoning love? May we never take a dry-eyed look at sin. Doing so threatens us on a dangerous and lonely path, with a tongue parched in the flames of hell.

But Peter must also have thought about his Master’s look of love. The Lord followed up the rooster’s warning voice with a cautioning look of sorrow, pity and love. That glance was never out of Peter’s mind so long as he lived. It was far more effectual than ten thousand sermons would have been without the Holy Spirit. The regretful apostle would be sure to weep when he recollected the Savior’s full forgiveness, which restored him to his former place. (John 21:15-19)

To think that we have offended so kind and good a Lord is more than sufficient reason for being constant weepers, both out of sorrowful repentance and at the same time joyful, thankful forgiveness. Lord, smite our rocky hearts, and make the waters flow.

Questions: When you look at the world, what issues bring you sadness? What about within your own life?

About this Author Charles Spurgeon