22 Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. “Never, Lord!” he said. “This shall never happen to you!”
23 Jesus turned and said to Peter, “Get behind me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to me; you do not have in mind the concerns of God, but merely human concerns.”
Did you ever think that this was an over-reaction to Peter's comment? Peter was expressing either love for Jesus, not wanting him to die, or support of Jesus, indicating that Jesus' work and ministry would not be stopped by the elders and teachers of the law. Why was it wrong?
Jesus was pointing out to Peter that this was not a prediction of what could happen depending on what actions they took, it was the plan of God already set in place being explained by the Son of God himself. It was not open to interpretation. By saying it could never happen, Peter was indicating that He felt that the planned outcome of the trip to Jerusalem was flawed. Peter seemed to believe that he knew that path that Jesus' ministry was on and that this plan did not fit. More importantly, by speaking up and making an effort to change the plan, He was going against the plans of God. He was not considering God's concerns, but his own human concerns.
We do this type of thing all the time.
We allow Satan to use our own self-pride against us by telling us that we have some kind of insight that others don't.
We approach life with the attitude that we will do what we think is right, then we will involve God when we need some supernatural help.
How then should we approach life so that we "have in mind the concerns of God instead of merely human concerns?" We have to battle every day, minute by minute to keep ourselves out of the situation so that God can live and work through us. How do we do that?
24 Then Jesus said to his disciples, “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. 25 For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will find it.
We must fight to lose our life spiritually. That sounds wrong, but when we give our life to the service of the Lord, we can't keep taking it back for our own use. It is not easy and takes consistent prayer and effort. Our default position is to live for ourselves. We must be strong in His power, not in ours. It is living the life that doesn't make sense. It is submitting ourselves to someone else because God's word says to, even though we believe we know better than they do. In Peter's case, it is sometimes NOT fighting the battle we REALLY want to fight. It is following the commands of God into the quiet darkness, not knowing what will happen. It is a struggle on the spiritual level. When we turn from it, we become a stumbling block to the purposes of God and things become a mess. Pray, Study God's Word, humble yourself in all things through seeking righteousness. Act in faith when the plan from God is clear being certain of His salvation from the evil one.
Ephesians 6:10 Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. 11 Put on the full armor of God, so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes. 12 For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. 13 Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. 14 Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, 15 and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. 16 In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. 17 Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.
18 And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the Lord’s people.
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