Peter was one of the most reputed and most talked disciple of Jesus Christ in the Bible. From a simple fisherman to an apostle, from being a coward to being courageous, from being a lier to a martyr, his journey of life is remarkable.

When we read through his journey, there are many important things which we cannot ignore. God speaks to us through those incidents which we even encounter in our day to day life. When Peter was called by Jesus to follow him, he immediately left his nets and went behind him. In one of the first few incidents,the disciples tarried a whole night to catch fish and could find none. Jesus did a miracle there and Peter was spellbound by that numerous catch of fish that he fell at the feet of Jesus and asked him to depart from him saying he was a sinful man. He was convicted and was changed.

Looking back at our lives, we even got saved quickly. Then there were some miracles that we were in awe of God and kept praising him, tried not to sin, got convicted every time we did something wrong and went back to Jesus. We tried to be obedient. We tried to do whatever God’s word tells us. Then what happened?

Declaration: When the whole world did not know who Jesus was, Peter was the first one to declare that he was the Son of God. He spoke first. He declared first. He confessed first. Even we do the same. We feel proud to say that we have Jesus as our Son of God, that we have him as our Savior, that he is everything for us. We are the first ones to jump into arguments with others about Jesus. We are not ashamed of what others think. We feel dignified to declare Jesus every Sunday in Church. But that was for how long? Did our declaration stood the test of times? Did we ensure that our declaration wasn’t made void at any point of time? Did that declaration reflect in our lives? Was it applied?

Denial: This part is very interesting. The same Peter who declared Jesus as the Son of God, the one who jumped out of boat to walk on water with Jesus, the one who spoke first for anything what Jesus asked, the one who was with him from the beginning, the one who was called the “Rock”, the one who asked Jesus to wash him fully, the one who said that he will be with Jesus till the end, this same Peter denied Jesus. When trouble came, he casually denied that he did not know who Jesus was. That was a very bad betrayal. When I was reading this, I was very surprised how can Peter do this, being with Jesus all the while.I was trying to understand how he ever got his mouth to say such an outright lie. We think that if we had been there we would have never done such a thing. But the holy spirit spoke to me that we are no better off than Peter.We are hypocrites too. We have denied Jesus out of our lives by sinning, by not obeying his word, by following the world, by our willful disobedience.

Destiny: Jesus already told Peter that he would deny him before the rooster crowed thrice. When the rooster actually crowed, Peter was struck with the realization that he had committed a terrible mistake. He wept. We come to realization of our sins and denial too when we listen to the word of the Lord again and when Holy spirit convicts us. We weep. We get back to Jesus. Peter was more powerful than before after his denial. The Crucifixion of Jesus brought the change. The resurrection of Jesus resurrected Peter from his old ways. He became a mighty apostle. He did miracles and wonders as never done before. He reached his destiny.

Can the same happen with us? What must we do? Let us confess and crucify our old sinful ways. Let us weep and mourn and feel wretched for our disobedience of God’s word. Let us look up to Jesus so that we will declare his name again! Let us start walking in the path of the destiny which God has for us than walking in denial of him. Our God is a gracious God and he loves all those who go back to him. He welcomes us with his loving arms. We are all prodigal sons and daughters loved by an everlasting father.

Peter’s beginning was good. He began with declaration. He messed up with denial in between. But his ending was even better because he chose to come back to Jesus and he reached his Destiny. God’s word says in Ecclesiastes 7:8, “The end of a thing is better than its beginning”. So my dear brothers and sisters, Do not worry if you who once had declared Jesus had denied him,Come back to him, he will help you reach your destiny. God Bless You!