featured image

Join us as we reflect, ponder, and pray together inspired by today's Gospel.


 

Today's Gospel: Matthew 16:13-19

Peter and Paul are amazing men. They probably wouldn’t have thought so while they were alive, but they both had tremendous love for God that changed them and the people around them.

Peter was with Jesus from the beginning. His brother Andrew was among the first to recognize that Jesus was different than other prophets and preachers. Peter was minding his fishing business when Jesus burst into his life and asked Peter to follow Him. He loved Jesus fiercely and wanted to defend Him in any way possible. It was only after the Resurrection that Peter recognized that his idea of defending Jesus was different than God’s idea. Peter went from wanting to defend Jesus by the sword to understanding that he had to defend Him with love.

Paul, too, loved God fiercely. He didn’t understand Who Jesus was, even after the Resurrection. Paul saw the new Christian church as a threat to faith in the One, True God: the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Paul also wanted to defend God by the sword, and he persecuted Christians and helped to make some of the earliest martyrs in the Church along the way. Then one day Jesus appeared to Paul, struck him blind, and instructed him to see the Apostles. When Paul’s conversion was compete, he, too, understood that he needed to defend God with love, and, like Peter, gave his life in the process.

Peter and Paul are both examples of how an encounter with God can change a person. May we take their spiritual lessons to heart!

 

Ponder:

 

God is always calling us to a deeper relationship with Him, even if it means our perceptions might change. In what ways is He calling you to have a change of heart and deepen your faith in Him?

 

Pray:


Lord, I know I don't understand You completely. Help me deepen my faith in You and learn to trust You more deeply. Saints Peter and Paul, pray for me!

 


Click to tweet:
Peter and Paul both loved God fiercely. But God needed them to change.
#dailygospel

Daily Gospel 2

 


Copyright 2022 Christine Johnson