Jesus Praises Peter for Listening to the Father!

There are several places where Jesus praises or compliments someone. Last week we saw Him compliment Nathaniel as someone in whom there was no “guile” or falseness. (John 1:47)

At the beginning of our series, we saw Jesus praising the Roman Centurion soldier as having “great faith!” (Matthew 8:10) Today let’s look at Jesus’ praise for Peter. (Matt 16:13) Jesus asks the disciples a question. “Who do people say the Son of Man is?” They give various answers but in the end Peter answers and says, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” Jesus is delighted and praises Peter saying that he is “blessed” and that he has heard from the Father for himself! Jesus has high praise for Peter!

Again, it is important to realize that Jesus’ praise comes to people who are not perfect. This greatly encourages me, because of my imperfections, failures and sins. This also encourages me because it shows me the “kind of person” Jesus is. Remember Peter is the one who fails to continue walking on water, who is dull and doesn’t get the parables, who resists Jesus’ will to die for the human race, who falls asleep in the garden of Gethsemane, who denies the Lord in public with oaths and a curse! Yet, Jesus is the kind of person who can find things to praise and compliment in weak and broken human beings like Peter and like us!

And God is just like Jesus. We need to attune our ears to the praise of the Father! He praises us for the things we get right even though we fail and sin at other times. He knows our failures but more importantly God knows our good intentions and our successes. This encourages us to press on in the grace of God!

Reason #2 for these emails: Developing a clear image of Jesus/God helps prevent “burn out.”  I know a few Christians that have just burned out.

There are many reasons for it. In Revelation 2:4 Jesus says to the Ephesians essentially, “You are doing a lot of good work! However, you have lost Me as your 1st love! Quick, turn back to Me!” If we have the 2nd Commandment BEFORE the 1st Commandment we can burn out. We need to get the 1st Commandment in 1st place! Delighting in God’s good character is one way to do that. (Not the only way, but it is one.)

Curious about the other reasons to get a clear image of Jesus / God? See http://godisjustlikejesus.blogspot.com/#!/2012/06/reasons-to-develop-clearer-image-or.html