Who Do You Say That I Am?

Today I was reading the passage in Matthew 16 where Jesus is asking his disciples who they thought that he was. Some said John the Baptist, some said Elijah, and some said Jeremiah. But what caught my attention was the question that Jesus asked Peter:

Verses 15-16 say "But what about you?" he asked. "Who do you say that I am?" Simon Peter answered, "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God."

The reason that I like Peter's response so much is because he had no doubt in his mind about who Jesus was. A lot of times it is easy to look down on Peter because of his over-zealous spirit followed by his denial of Jesus. But there is a lesson that we can learn from Peter. Even though he was misguided in a lot of ways and was not as faithful as he declared he would be, he still had a measure of reality in regard to who Christ really was. I think that we can learn from this because in life we are tempted to look at all kinds of things other than Christ. Our own sins and failures, doubts and fears, the routine of daily living, even the shortcomings of others. But all of these are things that the enemy uses to distract us from the one thing that should be our focus, and that is Christ.

In Matthew 14 there is the account of Jesus walking on the water during a storm and Peter goes out to meet him. Verse 30 says "But when he saw the wind, [Peter] was afraid and, beginning to sink, cried out, "Lord, save me!" Getting out of the boat and onto the water showed faith on Peter's part, but the problems began when he focused on the wind and the waves. Once he had taken his eyes off of Christ, he began to sink. There are so many things in our everyday lives that can draw our eyes and attention away, but we must not be tempted to look to anything other than Christ. If we truly believe that Christ is who he said he is, we might be less tempted to look so easily away from the one thing that is capable of both saving and keeping.