"The LORD lives and blessed be my Rock, and exalted be the God of my salvation,"(cf. Psalm 18:46). For starters, there is one Rock who is Christ (cf. 1 Cor. 10:4) but we can become rock-like like Peter. Jesus saw potential in Simon and after his declaration of faith, renamed him Peter to be like a rock. You've heard it said that no man is a rock or "no man is an island," (John Donne) but some people do have the steadiness of faith to encourage others and to be especially independent and able to be a light to others, to be a leader of men, a mover, and shaker. Also, we must strive to be strong. But that's the point;: We all have unrealized potential and the ability to be a Daniel to stand alone or to be a David to be a man after God's own heart or to fight like he did or to be bold a prophet like Elijah. What we are in actuality or achievement and what we can become or have the potential for are not the same.
God does give us opportunities but many of us squander them and waste the grace of God, even frustrating it. Peter was an ordinary fisherman who probably had no special ambition but Jesus saw something He could work with--a brazen even impetuous personality that God could use for His purposes. What we are in actuality and what we can become potentially are two different things. Some people just require extra grace and God is able to make grace abound even to the chief of sinners, Paul. Paul said that he would speak of nothing but what Christ accomplished through him (cf. Romans 15:18). Remember we have nothing but what we have received by grace and what we do with it is our gift back to God. Even our righteousness is God's gift to us, not our gift to God.
Peter was brave but he overestimated himself and underestimated the wiles of the devil to tempt or test his grit and faith. At one moment Jesus commended him, the next it seemed he was being rebuked! But when it was showtime, Peter's love for the Lord endured and Jesus knew that if He reinstated him and forgave him for his denials, he would be all the stronger: "When you have been restored go and strengthen the others.
We all must reach the faith of Peter ot be saved; i.e, knowing who Jesus is in reality and not believing in another Jesus. But we must not judge him, for when it counted, he showed faith and was faithful after realizing the truth. We too can be guilty of putting our foot in our mouth and speaking first and thinking later Peter made all the mistakes we probably would've made: bragging or boasting, trying to impress, correcting the Lord, speaking blasphemy, being confronted for our testimony, and being ashamed or embarrassed, even denying our Lord; there but for the grace of God go us! None of us are above these except for the grace of God.
In fact, grace is what sums up his life because it shows what God can do to a willing believer. Peter actually came to the point to realize that Jesus was using him and didn't need him but that he should consider it an honor. Jesus went through the trouble to reinstate Peter three times because he had denied Him three times. We are all too familiar with the flaws of Peter, but they are ours too. It wasn't Jesus but Peter who had to be reassured of his love for the Lord and to verbalize it and confirm it with words. Jesus tested his faith after the resurrection by asking him to fish on the other side of the boat, contrary to his reasoning, but he obeyed simply because it was the Lord who told him to. This even hurt his pride as a professional fisherman, but he still obeyed. There is a direct correlation between love and obedience, Peter had proven his love but needed reassurance.
Before we judge Peter, we must realize he walked on water and was the first to realize the identity of Jesus as God's own Son. It was for this declaration of faith that Jesus made him a leader in the church despite the fact that Paul rebuked him for playing politics with the Jews and the party of the Circumcision. We should all see a bit of ourselves in his flaws.
Peter's faith went through many phases: he had his shining moment of confessing Christ, his macho moment of boasting of his faith and drawing the sword, his puzzling moment of wondering about Christ's fate and outcome, his humbling moment of finding out he's not such a great fisherman, and his Spirit-filled moment of being reinstated and reassured of Christ's love. Indeed, Peter had the raw material of the makings of a spiritual leader and Jesus saw this potential and made him realize it in real-time with Him.
Do you yourself realize you are capable of doing a lot more for the Lord than you can imagine? Few of us reach our full potential and are underachievers for God. We have all missed opportunities and failed tests of God but we must never lose our faith that we can become what we are meant to be to fulfill all God's will for our lives and be obedient to the heavenly calling and fulfill the ministry God assigned us. But some of us don't even know our spiritual gift, much less to be engaged in God's will for us.
We must refrain from measuring ourselves with ourselves and comparing ourselves to others; to whom much is given, much is required. Who wrote the "Let's Compare!" book? We are to be rocks in our personal orbit and circle of influence, and not worry about the ministry of the next guy!
The conclusion of the matter is that we have the potential to be rocks in our own right and to fulfill God's will and calling for us because God doesn't call us to success but to faithfulness--the success is up to Him to bless or not. He makes the fruit grow and have the increase. We must not have gift envy and wish we had Peter's potential, for we do but we may have different gifts but the same Spirit. We can only find out our gift by serving God in the best way we know how to, and look to see how God uses and blesses us. We all can possess the faith of a William Carey: "Expect great things from God; attempt great things for God!" Soli Deo Gloria!
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