He said to him the third time, … “Do you love Me?” John 21:17
Have you ever experienced the pain inflicted by the Lord, like Peter must have had with that third question? In that place within you the enemy can’t touch, neither can sin, or human emotions at the very center of your being — in your most sensitive place? Nothing can touch that place but the Rhema / Word of God. Peter finally realized with that third question that in his most inner self — he really was devoted to Jesus. No one ever again would make him doubt about his relationship with Jesus. Peter had an epiphany and really began to understand how much he really did love Jesus. But he would have never known it until Jesus probed into him where no one else could go. The Lord’s direct questions always reveal the truth about ourselves.
Jesus has the perfect timing with His questions with us. Rarely, does He back us into a corner where He will hurt us with His piercing questions, but probably at least once in our lives. Then we begin to realize whether or not we actually do love Him far more deeply than we ever knew or can express.
Have you had that kind of probing by Jesus? Do you seek to be close with Him everyday? Is He really who you love? Usually what we obsess over is what we love. What is your obsession? What does your mind always fall to when it runs on idle? Does it return to the spiritual or to some fleshly desire? Is it about conquering some next level? Money? Influence? Your wife, husband, children, family?
He who loves father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me. And he who loves son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me. Matthew 10:37
What is it that you are really pursuing? A religion? A sense of happiness? A fleeting feeling?
Where is true contentment and rest found?
So many are trapped in the day to day machinations of work, job, and pursuit of things, and never pondering their own existence and purpose. When you have ‘free time’ in your head — what is that you go to / escape to? Do you really know the Father’s love? Have you actually felt it wash over you in waves?
If Jesus asked you, “Do you love Me?” As Jesus is staring into the very core of your being? What would be your revealing answer, knowing there is nothing but the absolute truth you can say?
What consumes your soul?