Simon Peter answered, “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God”. Jesus replied, “Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by flesh and blood, but by my Father in heaven. And I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it”. (Matthew 16: 16-18 NIV)
“Simon, Simon, Satan has asked to sift all of you as wheat. But I have prayed for you, Simon, that your faith may not fail. And when you have turned back, strengthen your brothers.” (Luke 22: 31-32 NIV)
Then Peter said to them, “Repent, and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit (Acts 2:38 NKJV)
I could not wait to share this after reading and praying more into this. I was in my office one morning reading the book entitled The Fourth Dimension by Dr. David Yonggi Cho and I was blown away reading about Simon Peter’s name change. When studying about the meaning of a reed, it is known for being malleable, easily moved, and very bendable. On the contrast, a rock is sturdy, tough, and not easily moved.
Simon’s (a fisherman turned a fisher of men) name means reed and when Jesus gave him the distinction of being Peter, there was so much power in the spoken word that it literally changed Peter’s life. The name Peter literally means rock. Dr Cho notes in his book that “Peter became a strong rock of the Early Church. But before he was changed into this rock, Christ saw a vision of Peter as a rock in His heart, and then he became that rock”.
Christ never gave up on His reed turned rock disciple, even when He knew that Simon Peter would forsake Him. Just in reading the warning He gave Peter in Luke referring to his reed name shows you that there was still some of that malleability to the world still hidden deep in Peter that he was not even aware of.
But Peter as seen in Acts 2, becomes very resolute in his mission and call as a disciple, but he needed to believe and accept the call from God in faith. He also needed to be humbled and reminded of his shortcomings when he did forsake Jesus. This made me think “I wonder how many of us received our own new identity in Christ, but we keep waffling? We want to be a rock but our reeds have not been rooted out completely?”
Think on these questions, meditate on this blog, and ask God to sift you so that you too can be a true disciple, diligently.
Stay Encouraged. Seek Him. Obey the Call. Complete Your Assignment.
Complete Your Calling 