Don't Waste the Waiting part 6

What does it look like to have faith in the wrong thing?

Peter had incredible faith, but it didn’t just happen one day, this was something that he built over time. He went through both ups and downs to get to the faith that we know him to have. There’s a story in the book of Matthew that shows a specific point in Peter’s life that I want to look at. 

Matthew 16:21-25

“From that time on Jesus began to explain to his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things at the hands of the elders, the chief priests and the teachers of the law, and that he must be killed and on the third day be raised to life. Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. ‘Never, Lord!’ he said. ‘This shall never happen to you!’ Jesus turned and said to Peter, ‘Get behind me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to me; you do not have in mind the concerns of God, but merely human concerns.’ Then Jesus said to his disciples, ‘Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will find it.’”

As we see in this story, Peter had faith. He believed that Jesus shouldn't go through something that hard. He believed this so much that Jesus rebuked Satan out of him. I think that this story is really important when we look at faith in the waiting because it shows that we can have faith in something that we shouldn't be putting our faith into.

Knowing what we should and shouldn’t put our faith in becomes really hard. Before we put our faith into something, before we commit to working towards something, we should make sure that it is something of God, not of this world. This is where knowing what the Bible says is true becomes so important. 

Peter didn’t understand why Jesus would go through anything hard, he didn’t understand even more, why Jesus would willingly do it. He didn’t understand the gospel. Nowadays, we know the gospel, but Peter and the rest of the disciples were living out the gospel, they got to see it come to fruition right in front of them. I think it is so easy for us to become comfortable with the gospel, but what if we had more of a reaction like Peter. Not one where we didn’t believe that God would do that, but one where we were grateful that God would willingly give up His son for us.

Don’t let the gospel become something that you get used to let the gospel be something that amazes you every single day! When Jesus told His disciples about what was going to happen, His disciples didn’t understand. But what He did was invite them to come and follow Him. By doing this, although they didn’t understand, they knew that life was going to be unsure, that it was going to be rocky, but they were able to hold onto the promises that God would never leave or forsake them. 

What if what you are waiting for in your life doesn’t happen? What if God is calling you away from something that you put all of your focus into so that you could see His plan more clearly for your life? What if by stepping away, it would allow you to see God clearer? 

I want to be like the disciples. I want to be living out the plan that God has for my life in the moment, instead of doubting and being unsure. I want to be able to look back at my life and testify that God is who He says He is. That He is always faithful and always good. But the thing that I need to do to get there, is to not only have faith in God, but to have faith that His plan is the best plan.