Peter, turning around, saw the disciple whom Jesus loved following them; the one who also had leaned back on His bosom at the supper and said, “Lord, who is the one who betrays You?” So Peter seeing him said to Jesus, “Lord, and what about this man?” Jesus said to him, “If I want him to remain until I come, what is that to you? You follow Me!” Therefore this saying went out among the brethren that that disciple would not die; yet Jesus did not say to him that he would not die, but only, “If I want him to remain until I come, what is that to you?” John 21:20-23
So, how often do you get caught up in comparing? Do you look at the work of another one of the Lord's servants and wonder what the heck the Lord is up to with this person? Come on now... we ALL do it. From time to time we tend to get more caught up in what God is doing through someone else than we are in what he wants to do in and through us. This is a terrible trap... it leads to all kinds of ugliness in us that is visible to others.
So what was up with Peter in John 21 above? Why did he care so much about what Jesus wanted to do with John? I suspect Peter was feeling a little insecure. After all, he had just had a HUGE blunder! The betrayal of Jesus was a misstep that knocked Peter right off his feet... as much as Peter loved Jesus and longed to follow him the truth is insecurity also breeds competition. Wouldn't it be nice to be rooted so strongly in Jesus that you died to competition with others and the opinions of all but Jesus?
I'm no where near close. I still struggle with the ugliness of my own heart failures. I'm tempted to look over and say to Jesus "What's up with her?" And I hear the sting of "What's that to you?" ringing in my ear. BUT... I'm learning to pay attention to the root causes of what makes me look over in the first place. I'm learning to watch what I give my face time too. By the way, when I'm looking at someone else I often end up tripping over my two own very large feet. You can't look at someone else and follow Jesus... it's too distracting and in my case debilitating. Learn to ask yourself... "What are you looking at?" and then learn to quickly divert your gaze from someone else to looking straight ahead at the one leading you through life.
So, how often do you get caught up in comparing? Do you look at the work of another one of the Lord's servants and wonder what the heck the Lord is up to with this person? Come on now... we ALL do it. From time to time we tend to get more caught up in what God is doing through someone else than we are in what he wants to do in and through us. This is a terrible trap... it leads to all kinds of ugliness in us that is visible to others.
So what was up with Peter in John 21 above? Why did he care so much about what Jesus wanted to do with John? I suspect Peter was feeling a little insecure. After all, he had just had a HUGE blunder! The betrayal of Jesus was a misstep that knocked Peter right off his feet... as much as Peter loved Jesus and longed to follow him the truth is insecurity also breeds competition. Wouldn't it be nice to be rooted so strongly in Jesus that you died to competition with others and the opinions of all but Jesus?
I'm no where near close. I still struggle with the ugliness of my own heart failures. I'm tempted to look over and say to Jesus "What's up with her?" And I hear the sting of "What's that to you?" ringing in my ear. BUT... I'm learning to pay attention to the root causes of what makes me look over in the first place. I'm learning to watch what I give my face time too. By the way, when I'm looking at someone else I often end up tripping over my two own very large feet. You can't look at someone else and follow Jesus... it's too distracting and in my case debilitating. Learn to ask yourself... "What are you looking at?" and then learn to quickly divert your gaze from someone else to looking straight ahead at the one leading you through life.
