the Third Week after Easter
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Daily Devotionals
Day by Day Devotional - Year 4 of 5
John 21:15-25
There remained one last service of love for the Lord to perform down here for His disciple, Peter. Three times over, Peter had denied his Master. Three times over, he has to be probed with a painful question: "You claimed to have more affection for Me than these others, but they have not denied Me (Mark 14:29). Where is this ardent love of which you spoke? I have had no proof of it."
"Lord, you know all about it. You can read my heart", is all that the poor disciple can reply in the end. Is the Lord Jesus to set him aside? On the contrary, now that Peter has lost confidence in himself, he is ready for service. "Feed my lambs . . . my sheep," the Master says to him (the original involves a diminutive full of tenderness: my little sheep). In looking after those whom the Lord Jesus loves, Peter is once again to have the opportunity of showing his love for Him.
The gospel is now at an end. But everything that the infinite Person, who fills its pages, has done, said and experienced is of priceless interest and God has noted it all (v. 25). There will be an inexhaustible supply of books for us to read throughout eternity. For the present time, may we each take to heart as a personal call, these last words of his Saviour, "Follow thou me."
