Simon Peter’s self-assurance - All The Good Seed Daily Devotionals for 2025

Lord, I am ready to go with you, both to prison and to death.
Luke 22:33.

Simon Peter's self-assurance
The Lord Jesus had just warned His disciples that Satan wanted to test them as wheat is shaken through a sieve (v. 31). That concerned Peter, the spokesman of the twelve, especially. He did not feel affected, so convinced was he of his uprightness. Those three words, "I am ready", are the key to explaining how the greatest crisis in his life came about.

Peter meant what he said. He loved the Lord sincerely. But he did not realise that he could do nothing of himself. He thought he would succeed, not knowing how weak he really was. He had not learnt that "in me nothing good dwells", as Paul later wrote (Romans 7:18). What could have helped and kept Peter? Surely, what the Lord said a little later: "Watch and pray, lest you enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak" (Matthew 26:41).

Peter would deny his Master. But the Lord had prayed for him, that his faith should not fail. When he returned to Him, he would be restored. Then He had a task for Peter: he should strengthen his brethren (v. 32).

"Let him who thinks he stands take heed lest he fall" (1 Corinthians 10:12). We need to pray to God, for He alone can preserve us from stumbling and bring us unharmed to our heavenly goal. If we fail, like Peter, we must confess our sins and return to the Lord. God "is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness'" (1 John 1:9).

Today's reading: Judges 16:1-12 · Psalms 73:1-8