The Losses
The Journey To Resurrection, Part 3
Along our journey in life, we will be tempted to compromise and lose hope that God is still with us. Yet no matter how difficult the road is ahead, God has provided everything we need in Christ to make it through. But what do we do if we're losing our battles? What do we do if we're sinking spiritually? How do we bounce back from failure?
“God holds on to us, even when we let go of Him.”
Scripture:
Luke 22:54-62
Then seizing him, they led him away and took him into the house of the high priest. Peter followed at a distance. And when some there had kindled a fire in the middle of the courtyard and had sat down together, Peter sat down with them. A servant girl saw him seated there in the firelight. She looked closely at him and said, “This man was with him.”
But he denied it. “Woman, I don’t know him,” he said.
A little later someone else saw him and said, “You also are one of them.”
“Man, I am not!” Peter replied.
About an hour later another asserted, “Certainly this fellow was with him, for he is a Galilean.”
Peter replied, “Man, I don’t know what you’re talking about!” Just as he was speaking, the rooster crowed. The Lord turned and looked straight at Peter. Then Peter remembered the word the Lord had spoken to him: “Before the rooster crows today, you will disown me three times.” And he went outside and wept bitterly.
Highlights:
• Every battle we lose is a chance to run back to God, but we have to acknowledge we’re not as strong as we think we are.
• Satan wants to find out what you’re made of because it’s easy to follow Jesus when things are going well. But what happens when you turn up the heat? Everyone has a boiling point.
• Standing with Jesus isn’t fighting back, but willingly, submissively laying down your life.
• “When we read the fall of Peter, we only read what might possibly befall any of ourselves. Let us never presume. Let us never indulge in high thoughts about our own strength.” - J.C. Ryle
• Satan is in the shadows trying to pull the strings in our lives. He’s not only trying to make us doubt God, but who we are in Christ.
• Outside of God’s grace we’re weak, but thank God, that knowing our weaknesses, Jesus is praying for you.
• The truth is, Jesus prays for you more than you could ever pray for yourself.
• “Jesus Christ is the infinite intercessor; he lives to pray for us...” - Philip Ryken
• Even as we may be losing spiritual battles right now, Jesus is looking at us in love and calling us back to him.
• Before we even ask, God is waiting to forgive us.
• True repentance is more than feeling sorry for what we’ve done; it’s being shattered by it, that we cry out for the grace to turn away from it so that we can live for Christ again.
• God holds on to us, even when we let go of Him. Every battle that we lose is a chance to run back to Him.
