DAY THREE | Soul Sabotage 

In this devotion, I want to zoom in on the disciple Peter. Specifically, I want us to walk together through Peter’s big (yet seemingly small) mistakes that culminated in the worst moment of his life. Spoiler alert: Peter denies Jesus. He doesn't just do it once. He denies him three times. Now, you’ve got to look at Peter’s highlight reel. I mean, this guy was selected as one of the twelve original disciples—a true OG. That’s a pretty big deal. He journeyed with Jesus—Mr. God on Earth himself—for three years. He had seen and been a part of tons of miracles. One of the writers of the Bible said that if he wrote down all of the things that Jesus did, he wouldn't be able to capture it all, and yet Peter had a front row seat to all of it! He was at the Last Supper, the very last time Jesus ever broke bread with people before being crucified. Peter was in the room with Jesus. Jesus himself told Peter that God was going to use him to build his church. As a matter of fact, Peter is renamed by Jesus. Simon was his given name, and Jesus renamed him Peter. If that’s not a highlight reel, I don’t know what is! But even after all of that pedigree, all of that time with Jesus, all of the moments that he encountered the glory of God, Peter messed…it…up. 

We should never think that exposure to God equals immunity to sin. We can attend conferences, camps, retreats, services, and all kinds of religious gatherings; we can even be in dedicated service to the causes of Christ and still be susceptible to sabotage in our soul. Sometimes we are so entrenched in church stuff that we skip the basic stuff that our life with Jesus is built upon.