Dear Ones:
Is it not strange that amid all of our concepts of God, we should be confronted with the question, “Do you love Me?” It is a question, the answer to which the whole of Peter’s life and ministry will depend. But it comes with an answer that Heaven alone can give. It must come from Christ alone, and entirely.
Peter had failed the Lord miserably, and it was necessary. He had to learn that his “love,” that which was according to his concepts, and “produced” by his energies and resources, was not only unacceptable to God, but completely useless in being able to fulfill the purpose for which God had created and saved him. If Peter will rise to be the man that he must be, he must have a love that is not of this world, a love that is Christ’s love. And this love is only a given love, and one to be received by faith.
In the Apostle Paul’s great words in Galatians 2:20, he writes, “…it is no more I who live, but Christ that lives in me, and the life that I now live I live by the faith OF THE SON OF GOD.” Paul also had to learn to live by the faith of Another, but the love of Another. When Hudson Taylor was in China many years ago as a missionary, he was sorely tried by the lack of victory in his personal life. He strove after it, not attaining it, until, as he put it, “…till hope itself almost died out.” But then the Spirit of God opened his eyes to see that “…faith was the only prerequisite, was the hand to lay hold of His fulness and make it my own…The Spirit of God revealed the truth of our oneness with Jesus as I had never known it before…But how to get faith strengthened? Not by striving after faith, but by resting on the Faithful One…As I read I saw it all! ‘If we believe not, He abideth faithful.’…I looked unto Jesus and I saw…” From whence does this “love,” true love of God come from? From faith in Christ, based upon our union with Him. “Nothing shall separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus.” We are one with that love, and called to receive that love by faith…looking at Christ, resting in His faithfulness.
So, today, let us rejoice in this oneness with Christ, and let us open our mouths wide, and trust Him to fill them. Let us believe Him for His fullness in this day, for all that is before us. And let us say to the Lord Jesus, “Lord, you know that we love you. Enable us to receive, and live by Thy love, Thy unfailing love.” Amen.
Love, Dad