4/13/25 1 Corinthians 10:12 “Trusting God or Self”
Choosing to follow Jesus does not make us perfect. Peter left his nets to follow Jesus, but he did not become like Jesus very quickly. He did learn that Jesus was the Messiah, but did not realize that He came to suffer and die. In fact Peter proudly told Jesus He was wrong, that He should not suffer and die (Matthew 16:21-25). He also proudly told Jesus there was no way that he would deny Him (Matthew 26:31-35). Peter could be example number one regarding Paul’s exhortation in 1 Corinthians 10:12. “Therefore let him who thinks he stands take heed lest he fall.” Peter had a lot of confidence in himself, but he ended up denying Jesus three times just like Jesus predicted (Matthew 26:69-75). When we exalt ourselves, God tends to humble us. Jesus said in Luke 18:14 that “everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.”
Jeremiah dealt with the same concept hundreds of years before Jesus lived. In Jeremiah 17:5-8 the Lord said, “Cursed is the man who trusts in man…. Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord.” Trusting God is hard when we think that we know best or that we can handle the situation on our own. We need to keep in mind what David said in Psalm 34:8. “Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good; blessed is the man who trusts in Him!” If Peter had chosen to trust God rather than proudly trust his own perceptions and abilities, the results would have been different. Same with us.
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