“And He began to teach them that the Son of Man must of necessity suffer many things and be tested and disapproved and rejected by the elders and the chief priests and the scribes, and be put to death, and after three days rise again [[a]from death]…
And He said this freely (frankly, plainly, and explicitly, making it unmistakable). And Peter took Him by the hand and led Him aside and then [facing Him] began to rebuke Him…
But turning around [His back to Peter] and seeing His disciples, He rebuked Peter, saying, Get behind Me, Satan! For you do not have a mind [c]intent on promoting what God wills, but what pleases men [you are not on God’s side, but that of men]…
And Jesus called [to Him] the throng with His disciples and said to them, If anyone intends to come after Me, let him deny himself [forget, ignore, disown, and [d]lose sight of himself and his own interests] and take up his cross, and [[e]joining Me as a disciple and siding with My party] follow [f]with Me [continually, cleaving steadfastly to Me]…
For whoever wants to save his [[g]higher, spiritual, eternal] life, will lose it [the [h]lower, natural, temporal life [i]which is lived only on earth]; and whoever gives up his life [which is lived only on earth] for My sake and the Gospel’s will save it [his [j]higher, spiritual life [k]in the eternal kingdom of God]. (Mark 8:30-35 in the Amplified Bible)
This passage of scripture hit me hard this morning as I read it. Especially the part about not having a mind to promote God’s will, but the will of men.
Can you imagine how Peter must have felt that day being called ‘Satan’ by Jesus? This is the man who later would receive the keys to the kingdom and who would be the first one to bring the message of salvation after the outpouring of the Holy Ghost in Acts chapter 2. Yet, at that particular moment, Peter did not have his mind completely sold out to the kingdom.
He thought he did, as no doubt many of us think we do. But when the unthinkable happens or the cross we’ve been asked to bear gets heavy or when there seems to be outright injustice occurring in our lives, do we, like Peter try to thwart the very thing that will bring about God’s purpose?
I’ve done it. Have you?
Time doesn’t permit me to share examples of how I have, in the name of God, stopped the speeding train so to speak, but if you will share with me your experiences, I promise to do the same in another post.
This too, is part of living every day with Jesus.