What occupies your thoughts for most of the day? Are your thoughts focused primarily on the immediate task before you? Do you ponder what you will do later in the day? Do you plan your weekend events? Do you think about what God has in store for you?
I will venture to say that most of us are focused on the immediate most of the time. We may think a few days ahead to the weekend. We might plan a vacation a few months ahead of time. We may even set a goal for five or ten years down the line. But we likely don’t think about them much.
Think that’s a harsh statement? Then spend a few moments and try to remember the last time you thought and planned a summer vacation. Now, compare that to how much time you’ve spent this week thinking your daily job, what you are having for dinner, or what you are watching on the television. It doesn’t really compare, does it?
If that is not bad enough, when was the last time you thought about what God desires for you? Most of us spend very little time thinking about. Our prayers are more about what we want and rarely about what God wants. We don’t ask him what he wants us to do. Instead, we tell him what we want to do and ask him to bless it.
Peter was in this same thought process. He had just confessed that Jesus was the Messiah. But his view of the Messiah was an earthly view. His vision was of a king who would run the Romans out of Israel and make Israel a great nation again. So, when Jesus said He was going to be put to death and raise again on the third day, all Peter heard was Jesus was going to die. That was not the vision he had of the Messiah.
Our vision of the Messiah is a little different than Peter’s. Yet, I’m not convinced we truly see Him for who He is. We don’t fully realize what He has done for us nor the promises He has made for us. We are not much different than Peter. We are thinking of earthly things and not heavenly things.
I pray we all spend more time seeking to understand who Jesus is. I pray we spend more time thinking about heavenly things. I pray each one of us will set aside our wants for God’s desires. Seek to know Jesus. Spend time thinking divinely. Ask God what he wants. Seek to fulfill God’s desires.
Mark 8:33 But turning and looking at his disciples, he rebuked Peter and said, “Get behind me, Satan! For you are setting your mind not on divine things but on human things.”
Marty Pressey 