DO YOU LOVE ME?

PRAYER MOMENT 

Friday 22 May 2015 (Internet problems!)

DO YOU LOVE ME?

Pause. Enter into the stillness of God within.

Reading: “Then Jesus said to him a third time, ‘Simon Peter, do you love me?’ Peter was upset that he asked him a third time and said, ‘Lord, you know everything, you know tha I love you.’” (John 21:15-19)

Reflection. It might upset us too – to be asked three times by someone we love – if we love them. But we know the context. We know Peter had denied him three times. And this was a delicate, non-judgemental way, of confirming Peter who had wept bitterly when the cock crowed three times. It seems to be deeply appreciated that some acknowledgement of wrong doing restores relationship. To say, ‘I am sorry,’ to say, ‘I was wrong,’ seems to be hard for us at times. But if we can say it it is the beginning of something new. In fact, we suspect that Peter grew up fast in his faith when he hit rock bottom and then wept when he realised. Sin is a strange thing. It brings havoc. But if it is acknowledged it brings even more healing than was there before.

     

   

Prayer. Lord, help us to acknowledge our faults, our compromises, our avoidance. Send us your Spirit to make us whole. Amen.

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