Life Lessons From 25 New Testament CharactersShembull

Follow or Fail?

Follow OR Fail? OR Fail and keep following? Jesus’ first words to the young man named Simon Peter were, “Come, follow me”. His last words to him were, “Follow me”, and Jesus made Peter — a guy that failed a lot — one of His main leaders after Jesus left to Heaven. Every step of the way, between those two challenges, Peter never failed to follow—even though he often stumbled. His denial of Jesus is one of the epic failures described in Scripture. Yet Jesus restored him. How about you? Will you continue to follow even when you fail knowing God gives you the grace to get back up and follow Him along the road of this “Jesus walk”?

THINK and PRAY:

Will You Follow?

We are exactly the same as Simon Peter. At one moment we, too, tell God, “I’m all in, I’ll never deny you!” God knows us better than that. He calls us even though He knows we can’t perfectly hold up to His perfection. And yet, He still tells us, “Be holy, as I am holy.” So how do we keep following Jesus if we inevitably know we will fail? God gives us His grace for our mistakes. He has made us perfect through faith in Him and is making us perfect by our continuing to have faith in His faithful hand working in us and our failures and our victories over sin. Check out Romans, chapters 6, 7, & 8 when you get a chance. He also gives us His Holy Spirit, His Word, and other Christians to teach us from our failures and help us continue to grow in becoming obedient, joyful followers who desire to live as Jesus lived. Peter continued to get up and follow, even after denying Jesus many times and stumbling in sin, because Jesus himself picked him up and said, “Follow Me”. Jesus will not deny us. He always wants us to receive His grace and depend on Him to grow with every mistake and victory. Follow and don’t give in to failure or condemnation. The perfect Heavenly Father does not give up on His kids — Peter or you!