“But What About Him?”

God is faithful. God is about direction. Am I going a wrong way? Or is there some part of me, some part of my thinking that perhaps is a skew and needs fine tuning? More than likely. Often we are awry but God is gracious and long suffering. God is always teaching, the question we should/need to be asking ourselves though is this, “do we hear Him?” and “are we listening?” That is what I love about devotionals. They are often very poignant on one particular thought and get straight to it, or at least for me, that’s what a good devotional should be doing and today? that’s exactly what one of them did, “God, is that you I’m hearing?”.

In my devotional today from “My Utmost For His Highest” I read about Peter and I love Peter I think most of all. He is rash, short tempered, bold, stubborn, does and says stupid things and then lives later to regret it; Peter. Probably for myself one of the Apostles I can most identify with and yet, I am thankful that the Lord still loved him, had a purpose and a plan for his life even. Yes, Peter. Contemptuous Peter.

Today I read once again the account of Peter; where the Lord restored him after he had denied Him three times. What I noticed though in today’s text was this; where Peter, after Christ proclaimed the end of his life outcome seeing the Apostle John then asks, “well, what about him?” and Christ says, “well, what about him? You, follow me.” And I thought, “how interesting,” this little piece of dialogue between Peter and Christ and it really got me thinking. That, and Oswald Chambers take on the whole subject.

“Well, what about him?” There is no doubt that we are supposed to preach Christ. There is no doubt that is our “Great Commission,” but when our eyes drift from the Lord to our fellow man and we find ourselves asking God, “Lord, well, what about him?” then it is here we have lost our focus. Christ said, “never mind him. You, follow me.” We must remember that God is in the midst. We must only make our focus Him. Our goal Him. Our aim Him. Pursuing with all of our being to be rightly related to God, fully dependent on Him and Him alone. This is what we should be aiming for and when we find ourselves finally wedded to Him in complete abandonment it is only then that it becomes perhaps as Chambers says; that we become so abandoned to God that the consciousness of being used never enters in.

If I am worrying or wondering about the “outcome” of my fellow man, well, it is not for me to worry about because after all, it is out of my hands. That is God’s business but as for me? I am to follow Him, eyes on Him and as Christ told Peter before Peter asked, “well, what about him?” Christ said we are to do this; “Feed My Lambs, Tend My Sheep, follow Me,” but then… we are to leave the outcome to Him.

JOHN 21: 15-22
So when they had eaten breakfast, Jesus said to Simon Peter, “Simon, son of Jonah, do you love Me more than these?”
He said to Him, “Yes, Lord; You know that I love You.”
He said to him, “Feed My lambs.”
He said to him again a second time, “Simon, son of Jonah,do you love Me?”
He said to Him, “Yes, Lord; You know that I love You.”
He said to him, “Tend My sheep.”
He said to him the third time, “Simon, son of Jonah, do you love Me?” Peter was grieved because He said to him the third time, “Do you love Me?”
And he said to Him, “Lord, You know all things; You know that I love You.”
Jesus said to him, “Feed My sheep. Most assuredly, I say to you, when you were younger, you girded yourself and walked where you wished; but when you are old, you will stretch out your hands, and another will gird you and carry you where you do not wish.” This He spoke, signifying by what death he would glorify God. And when He had spoken this, He said to him, “Follow Me.”

Then Peter, turning around, saw the disciple whom Jesus loved following, who also had leaned on His breast at the supper, and said, “Lord, who is the one who betrays You?” Peter, seeing him, said to Jesus, “But Lord, what about this man?”
Jesus said to him, “If I will that he remain till I come, what is that to you? You follow Me.”

For today’s (11-15-07) devotional from “My Utmost For His Highest” go to www.rbc.org/utmost and God bless!