God's way is not our way

March 12, 2020
Today’s devotion is based on Mark 8:31-33. “Jesus began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and the chief priests and the scribes and be killed, and after three days rise again. And He said this plainly. And Peter took Him aside and began to rebuke Him. But turning and seeing His disciples, He rebuked Peter and said, “Get behind me, Satan! For you are not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of man.”
I am sure that Peter was deeply hurt by Jesus’ words that day. Jesus was right though. Satan was acting through Peter at that moment—trying to turn Jesus aside from the path God wanted Him to walk, the path to the cross.

We all need to be glad that Jesus didn’t listen to the devil speaking through Peter. The devil’s aim is to keep us all in slavery, to prevent Jesus from setting us free to be children of God living in God’s kingdom. But Jesus wasn’t going to have that. He wasn’t going to walk away. He loves his creation too much to do that. His suffering and death would mean our everlasting life. His resurrection would be our joy and happiness forever. In Jesus’ eyes, his suffering and death were worth it.

Please pray with me the prayer for today: Lord Jesus, thank You for loving me enough to do all you did to set me free of the devil’s grasp so that on Judgment Day, I can stand before God declared innocent of all sin. All praise and honor belong to you. In Jesus’ name, I pray. Amen.