Luke 22:54…And Peter followed afar off.
Ok… before we point fingers at Peter, and call him a hypocrite, let us first examine our lives. Are we not also following Christ from afar? You might say, of course not! He is my Saviour and I love Him! Well… let us check the veracity of that statement… You say you are not following Christ afar off, but you are always ashamed to identify with Him in public, you say you are not following Christ from afar, how come you are never able to defend your faith when others try to water it down to nothing? You say you are not following Christ from afar, then why are you not able to take your stand as a Christian but keep giving in to things that God clearly despises just because you want to gain the applaud and praise of men? You say you are not following Christ from afar, how come you and the world are almost becoming one? Before we criticize and crucify Peter, let us check our lives first.
Psalms 73:27 For, lo, they that are far from thee shall perish: thou hast destroyed all them that go a whoring from thee. 28 But it is good for me to draw near to God: I have put my trust in the Lord GOD, that I may declare all thy works.
When we begin to follow Christ afar off, we miss out on a lot of things; We would not be able to map out clearly His plan for our lives, we lose fellowship with Him, our lives become void of intimacy with him, we begin to experience spiritual dryness, we begin to hear more of the voice of men than of God, we loose our joy, we might stop getting instructions from Him, because even if these instructions come, we might be too distracted with the mundane things of the world to listen intently to these instructions, talk less of obeying them, we will also have weary and weak faith to face our day to day struggles, there would also be doubt in the validity of God’s word over time, and more… The sheep that follows the Shepherd afar off may eventually be devoured by a wolf…
James 4:8 Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you…
God desires that we walk side by side with Him, Him holding our hands and leading us through. When we draw near to God, He promises to draw near to us as well. Like every loving Father, God wants a close relationship with His children and is saddened when they go away from Him or walk with Him from afar… Let us not allow the fear of men and their opinions cause us to walk with God from afar (Matthew 10:28 And fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul: but rather fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell) Let us not allow the fear of persecutions and suffering cause us to falter in our stand for the truth and the Lord (Philippians 1:29 For unto you it is given in the behalf of Christ, not only to believe on him, but also to suffer for his sake;) and stay with God whatever betides. Let us repent even now of that treacherous action of walking afar off from our God and seek His forgiveness, and by true and renewed faith in God, prayer, study of the Word of God, and fellowship with the brethren, draw near to God again…
