October 2 Daily Devotional

Bible Reading

John 21:15–20

Devotional

Becoming old is not always easy. Old age often comes with physical frailty. There are many activities that could still be done at a young age, but no longer can be done as age increases. An older person has to let go of many things. He has to give up certain activities. An older person must be taken to places where he cannot bring himself, or he may need to be taken to places where he does not want to go. As a person’s years increase, the number of activities that he can do decreases. The things he could do at a younger age may no longer be possible.

According to the words the Lord Jesus spoke to Peter, the same things happen in spiritual life. Spiritual life is a school where one continually must learn to lose his own strength. One is taught to surrender one’s own ability and to let go of it. In this school one will be taken to places where he does not want to go and had never imagined being. They had never expected that matters would develop in their lives in such a way.

Peter had been young. At that stage of his life he could do nearly anything. He also thought that he knew everything. In his spiritual youth he thought often that he could help himself. And he could run so fast. It was so fast that even Christ had to say, “Get thee behind me, Satan” (Matt. 16:23). He was so zealous that he himself did not know that he would run right into the sieve of the devil. The youth sees no dangers.

People who are spiritually young can have much love and good intentions. They want to do so many things themselves. They have been translated from death to life, and they think they themselves have to progress on this way of their new life. They think, they themselves must hold on to God’s cause to secure God’s kingdom. It has become their desire to walk on the path of God’s commandments, but they often trust in their own legs, as if they could enter heaven in their own strength and independent of Jesus.

But those who are spiritually dead do not know this youthful life. If you have never been in this spiritual youth, then you will never be able to become spiritually older. That is how matters once were with Peter. Peter, once spiritually dead, was brought to the light of God’s truths. Now spiritually old, he is told, “When thou wast young, thou girdedst thyself, and walkedst whither thou wouldest: but when thou shalt be old, thou shalt stretch forth thy hands, and another shall gird thee, and carry thee whither thou wouldest not.” This posture is not strange to one who has been drawn from darkness to His light. But now there will be one in Peter’s life, who will bring him where he does not want to be. The Jewish Sanhedrin will put him in prison. There will be enemies and persecutors, and finally emperor Nero, who let him die the death of a martyr instead of the death of a hero that Peter had first wanted, when he said to Christ, “I will lay down my life for thy sake” (John 13:37).

But at the heart of the matter, it was Christ Himself, who, using others, diminished Peter’s strength. It was God who cut off the wild branches of Peter’s selfexpectation. In all this Peter had to learn that nothing could be anticipated of him. That is the lesson the Lord teaches all His people. Nothing should be expected from self, but there will be every expectation from the Lord.

 

From The Everlasting Word by Frans Bakker, compiled and translated by Gerald R. Procee. Reformation Heritage Books and Free Reformed Publications, 2007. Used by permission. For further information, click here.