Alive - by Dave Smith

‘own’ the problem. Outwardly, Peter seemed to be doing fine. The
risen Jesus had already appeared to him, and Peter was the first in
this encounter to jump out of the boat and run to him. So on the
surface, at least, it seems Peter still felt ‘positive’ about his
relationship with Jesus. But Jesus is the most skilled ‘heart surgeon’
that there is. He knew that Peter needed to face up to who he was
and what he had done and to deal with any self-deception so that he
could be fully healed and restored, rather than carrying the problem
with him into his future.
Jesus’ method was to ask searching questions – in fact the same
basic question, framed slightly differently three times: ‘Do you love
me’? The first time he said: ‘Do you love me more than these?’ The
‘more than these’ could have meant more than fishing, more than the
other disciples or even ‘Do you love me more than they do?’ There is
no way of knowing for certain. What we can be sure of is that Jesus
went straight to the heart of the matter: ‘Peter, the reason you denied
me was a love issue – you loved self, your reputation, what others
thought of you – more than you loved me.’ 8 Jesus knew that for Peter
to both experience full forgiveness and freedom from his past failure
and be ready for future service, he had to deal with his heart issue.
Like Peter, God has a plan for our lives. He made us, and sent
Christ to restore us, from both the damage done to us, but also the
damage we have done to ourselves. This process starts when we
come to Christ. In his letter to first-century Christians, the now fully
restored Peter wrote: ‘Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord
Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living
hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead’ (1 Peter
1:3). The transformation is so dramatic it’s described as a ‘new birth’.
Then, as we allow the indwelling Christ to progressively restore us,