I read this statement by Jesus in Mark 14:27 and I got scared a little bit. “You will all fall away”. Immediately, I began thinking, Jesus does not care about us. He does not want the best for us. How could He say that we will all fall away? Is He not the One who said that He will never leave nor forsake us? Didn’t He leave the pleasures and glory of heaven to stay with us in this ‘world of a mess’?
Jesus once told Peter that the devil sought to sift you like wheat but I have prayed for you so that your faith will stand. This means that Christ always intercedes for us and He will never allow us to fall away. But then, why did He say, “You will fall away”.
There is a deep reason why Jesus made that statement. It is found in this, “Strike the Shepherd and the Sheep will be scattered”. He is the shepherd and we are the sheep. We are most vulnerable and so without our Shepherd-Christ, we will all fall away. Remember the words of Christ in John 15:5, “Without me, you can do nothing”.
We are tempted at certain times to think we are independent creatures. We are not on our own. Our sufficiency is of God, not ourselves. The issue still lies in the fact that, without Christ, life will be full of crises. Our education will be useless if Christ does not take the center role. It will surely fall away. Without Christ, our career will fall away. Without Christ, our marital life will never stand. Without Christ, we can never live a fruitful Christian life.
Peter thought he could do it with his own strength. He said that if all will forsake Christ, He will never do that. At the end, he still denied Christ. This happened for him to realise that the arm of flesh will fail. Many are the plans of a man but it is the Lord’s counsel that will always stand sure.
Let us in reverent humility give it ALL to HIM who is able to keep the body, soul and spirit. Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understandings, in all your ways acknowledge Him and He will direct your path. If you don’t give it all to Him, you will lose it all. Why hold on to that which you can’t do anything about? Give it ALL to HIM.
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