GOD HAS THE BEST PLANS

It's quite common in the Gospels for Peter to act on impulse or to put his foot in his mouth. Sometimes we have good cause to shake our head, and say "Peter, maybe you should have thought that through first."

But there is an episode in Matthew where Peter ended up being rebuked rather harshly for what appears on the surface at least to be nothing more than speaking out of love and concern for Jesus. He was probably just saying what the rest of the disciples were thinking, but he was the one who spoke up. And he paid the price.

Here's the passage from the NLT (Matthew 16: 21 - 23)

From then on Jesus began to tell his disciples plainly that it was necessary for him to go to Jerusalem, and that he would suffer many terrible things at the hands of the elders, the leading priests, and the teachers of religious law. He would be killed, but on the third day he would be raised from the dead. But Peter took him aside and began to reprimand him for saying such things. “Heaven forbid, Lord,” he said. “This will never happen to you!” Jesus turned to Peter and said, “Get away from me, Satan! You are a dangerous trap to me. You are seeing things merely from a human point of view, not from God’s.”

I can only imagine the shock on Peter's face, being on the receiving end of this really stern response from Jesus, when I'm pretty sure he spoke out with only the best of intentions. I'm absolutely certain he had no idea he was falling into Satan's hands by trying to dissuade Jesus from the difficult path He had to take. What I hear in Jesus' words is "What I have to do is difficult enough for me already. Don't make it harder by trying to talk me out of it. That's what Satan wants, not God."

Two very important things are happening here.

1. Peter isn't trying to do or say something wrong. He means well and he's just saying what seems right to him. 
2. What seemed good and right to Peter, and absolutely could have been the right thing in other circumstances, was not consistent with what God wanted in this particular time and place. 

Clearly then it's possible for us to speak or act with right motives, doing what seems right to us, but be in opposition to what God wants in that situation. If it can happen to Peter, surely it can happen to us. 

The Bible addresses this issue in Isaiah 55: 8 - 9.

“My thoughts are nothing like your thoughts,” says the Lord.
    “And my ways are far beyond anything you could imagine.
For just as the heavens are higher than the earth,
    so my ways are higher than your ways
    and my thoughts higher than your thoughts.

This is a dilemma. If we can't trust ourselves to be right, even when we have good motives and a sincere desire to do the right thing, what do we do? The answer is simple, but not always easy. We need to ask the Holy Spirit of God, who lives within us, to bring our thoughts into line with His. We need to ask God to reveal His plans, His desires, His will.

If we can fault Peter for anything in this story, it's that he spoke what seemed good and right to him without first giving time and attention to discerning what was good and right to God. That's where we often fail as well. We can come down on the side of what seems good to us at the time. Our conclusions or decisions may be guided by love and by good moral thinking and by a righteous confidence. But if we haven't spent time waiting on God, to know His will, we can still be out of line with God's higher purpose or plan for a specific situation.  

I suppose my conclusion is that no matter how much we have grown in God, no matter how wise and well intentioned we are, we will never reach a point where we can presume to know God's will without asking. Moving ahead with the best intentions, without honestly and diligently consulting God, may result in us taking actions or speaking words that are out of line with what God wants at that moment or in that circumstance. Human wisdom and pure motives are never good substitutes for an understanding of God's will.

So next time you find yourself moving ahead in a way that is wise and moral and loving, and you have only the best in your heart, make sure you've hit the pause button long enough to consult with God and hear His voice. Better to be in tune with God's plan than to rely on our own wisdom and good intentions.