We all want Jesus to accept us the way we are, to love us, to always forgive us our sins. We want Jesus to answer our prayers and requests and just be the way we want Him to be. Nothing wrong with that. But we also need Jesus as one who will be challenging to us, telling us what is morally not OK. He also will tell us about salvation but also about punishment. He will tell us about suffering, sickness, death, and about the many other challenges in life. If we accept Jesus, we need to accept Him wholly, with His love, but also with His suffering. But some of us don’t like that and try to only choose a part of Jesus’ teaching. This is exactly what happened to Peter. He saw in Jesus a great prophet, teacher, and friend, but also the Christ. And he couldn’t accept Jesus’ warnings about suffering and death. “Then Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. At this he turned around and, looking at his disciples, rebuked Peter and said, Get behind me, Satan. You are thinking not as God does, but as human beings do.” We need to pray for deep faith, so we might be able to see like God, not only as humans -- that our suffering ultimately leads to resurrection.
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