The Bible says: ‘While he was still speaking, a rooster crowed…The Lord turned and looked at Peter. And Peter remembered the word of the Lord, how He had told him, “Before a rooster crows today, you will deny Me three times.” And he went out and wept bitterly’ (vv. 60-62 NASB). Before God trusts us with a great assignment, He may permit Satan to test us. That’s because it can reveal our weaknesses and help us become stronger in those areas. God might allow us to fail in a smaller sphere to keep us from messing up in a larger one where we could have the potential to hurt ourselves and others. One of the wonders of the Christian life is that Jesus can take rubble and build something beautiful out of it. Peter promised never to deny Jesus, but by the time the rooster crowed, he had already done it three times. Repeated failure! Many of us can relate to that! Maybe we said we wouldn’t lose our tempers, but we did. Cock-a-doodle-doo! We said we wouldn’t give in to temptation, but we did. Cock-a-doodle-doo! A rooster crows early in the morning to announce the beginning of a brand-new day. After his worst night of failure, the sun came up for Peter. And it’ll come up for us too. By God’s grace we can start life fresh any day we choose to. Today we can repent of our sins and go on to do great things for the Lord. Peter ended up winning multitudes to Christ and leading the church. So no matter how badly we think we’ve failed, God will forgive us, restore us, and redirect our steps.
