Tag: hindrance

Jesus’ harsh words to Peter really made me think.

Get behind me, Satan! You are a hindrance to me because you’re not thinking about God’s concerns but human concerns. (Matthew 16:23)

Just a few minutes earlier, he had told Peter,

I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth will have been bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will have been loosed in heaven. (19)

Like Peter, we have been given the keys to the kingdom of heaven. We have been given the gospel that can open heaven’s gate to people.

But how often do we fail to do that? How often do we instead hinder Jesus and his saving work because we are thinking, not about God’s concerns, but our own?

How often are we so concerned about our own life and what we want, that we fail to see what God is trying to do around us in the lives of others?

And because of that, not only do we fail to join in with what God is doing, we actually get in his way.

Lord, forgive me for the times I get so fixated on my own agenda, that I don’t see what you’re doing. Forgive me for even getting in your way.

Help me to see the needs of the people around me, the people you died for. Open my eyes. Change my heart. In Jesus’ name, amen.