Personally, I find these to be some of the most beautiful words in all of the Bible. They’re SO good, SO true, and SO beautiful. This has quickly become one of my all time favorite verses. I suppose I just find it incredibly relatable as well. Just the realization that without Jesus, there’s nothing, that really, who or what else could we ever go to? He’s it! He is EVERYTHING, and all we will truly ever need. If we don’t have Jesus, we don’t have anything.
There’s just a broken world full of broken people and broken things, and oh how desperately this dying world needs Him! Our one and only hope, our ultimate treasure, our precious Savior and King.

And! Something crazy to consider; these amazing words, they come from Peter— a man who goes from speaking wonderful truths such as this, to having to be rebuked by Jesus (Matthew 16:23), and even denying Jesus three times (Matthew 26:74). Talk about having ups and downs! If anything, the fact that it’s Peter who spoke these words makes it all but the more beautiful. It’s such a wonderful reminder of how we all truly are— sinners who mess up everyday, and desperately need a Savior. We give Peter a lot of flak for his royal mess ups, but the truth is we are ALL like Peter. We can be on the mountain top one moment, and in the next, back down in the creepy, creepy valley. We are all wretched sinners. But thanks be to God through our Lord Jesus Christ (Romans 7:25)! There is hope to be found in Him and what He has already done for us, the One Who alone has the words of eternal life. Amen! Now let’s share this Good News with the world.

In recent weeks, I have caught myself trying to “relive the past” so to speak, trying to recapture long gone eras and nostalgic feelings. In my desperate attempts to recreate what to me were “simpler times,” I ended up making things much harder for myself, stagnating my growth, becoming unproductive, and ultimately, miserable. Sometimes we get caught in these ruts of the past— whether it’s a good time we’re reminiscing about, or even trauma that we are still haunted by. Either way, we can find ourselves “living in the past” and becoming stagnant, caught in the enemy’s trap in an attempt to hold us back from growing in Christ. I think this verse is a good reminder, perhaps something we should memorize and repeat to ourselves in times when we are tempted to dwell on the past in one respect or another. We need to ask God for His strength and His help to fight off such temptations and remind ourselves to walk forward, not back. This is definitely a reminder I will need everyday. So my prayer is that God would help all of us to leave the past behind and press ahead, that He would heal us from past wounds and instead give us eyes that look continually forward. Lord, do a mighty work in us today and help us to press forward and to leave the past where it belongs. Please help us to continue growing in You and not to be stunted by hurdles from the old life. Change our hearts and our desires, and remind us that true life is found only in You, not the “idols” we once fled after. Please change us today, give us an unshakable faith, a passionate love and a deep trust in You alone.